A PASSIONATE and hard working care worker has been nominated for our Worcestershire Care Heroes award.

Mum-of-three Carly Thomas, 33, has worked in the care industry since she left college when she was 18-years-old, and she currently works for Safe Hands Recruitment Limited in Worcester.

She was nominated for the award by her sister-in-law Fern Passey.

Fern said: "Carers don’t get enough credit and Carly does a lot.

"She has a lot to juggle; she looks after her kids and works really hard with her work, but she loves what she does and she does it with a smile on her face as well.

Carly, who lives in Malvern, said she was "shocked but thrilled" to be nominated.

Working for an agency, Carly works in different care homes in the county.

She cares for adults with learning disabilities and also works in elderly nursing care when she works at the Boynes Care Centre in Upton upon Severn.

Carly said: "Things have been difficult because we can't be as close to the elderly as we would like to be at the moment.

"We used to hug and sit with them and hold their hands but we can't do that because of Covid so that's been hard."

Carly had her gallbladder removed in 2017.

She says this causes her pain and some days can be difficult, but she is always determined to work hard.

"I’m passionate and I love my job," she said.

"I love caring for people, and with some of our residents, we can be their closest family.

"I feel like I want to be there towards the end for them, especially if I've worked with them for a while, because you do get attached to them and I know you shouldn’t, but it's hard because it's your job and it's your life.

"I am very caring and I do put my job first, but I think that's just me - I do think of everybody else before I think of myself."

A spokeswoman for the Boynes Care Centre, said: “Carly has been brilliant with her approach to care.

“The residents and everybody loves having her here.

“She’s great with the residents, very pleasant and a hard worker."

Carly added: "It would be amazing to actually win something and to be rewarded.

"It would probably make my year."

You can vote for your Worcestershire Care Hero 2020 by filling in the form in the newspaper.

You can also vote by emailing michael.purton@newsquest.co.uk. Please put ‘Worcestershire Care Heroes 2020’ as the subject of the email, and include the following information:

  • The name of the carer
  • Where they work
  • Why you think they deserve to win the award
  • Your name and your contact phone number so that we can call you in order to gather details for the feature profiling the carer you’ve nominated.

The deadline for voting is 10am on Monday, December 21.

The winner will be announced on Christmas Eve.