Sonia Duthie

“I have been married for 29 years this year and, apart from cooking, I enjoy travelling, am very active, and love a challenge and trying out new experiences.  I would describe myself as “young at heart”.  Last year whilst on holiday I completed the PADI Open Water Diving certificate as I’d always wanted to learn to dive and I was also part of a World Record achievement at CarFest North during July 2019 where we formed the largest human Fleur de Lis in celebration of 100 years of the Scouting movement!

I have had a varied career.  I wanted to go to catering college.  I was very successful at school in the Nutrition and Cookery lessons, coming top of the year for several years running. However, I was not allowed to pursue this dream as, “girls weren’t chefs”…different times back then…

After leaving school I trained as a State Registered Nurse.  This was not meant to be, and I ended up following an office-based career, working in sales support, customer service and then office management.

After having our children, I retrained and worked for myself as a Holistic Therapist, before returning to office-based work once our children were older.

Four years ago, after being made redundant, I returned to the NHS and now work at Bedford Hospital in the Occupational Therapy Department, where I am a Senior Therapy Assistant working for the Clinical Navigation Team.

Essentially we help to “navigate” patients home, providing support, arranging packages of care and providing equipment to them in order to facilitate a safe discharge, following an in-depth holistic assessment of the patients once they are medically fit for discharge.

I absolutely love my role in the NHS, especially working at Bedford Hospital.  We are like one enormous family, everyone is so supportive and friendly and now, instead of dreading work, I now look forward to going and leave everyday knowing that I have made a difference to someone, even if it’s only in a small way like making them a cup of tea or holding their hand.”

Connect with Sonia and discover more of her work @soniaduthiecooks