From Emirates to Home Care

Meet the Emirates flight attendant who swapped a life of travel for home care after Covid redundancy

Emma Capon, 31, was based in Dubai working as a flight attendant for Emirates Airlines when the Covid-19 pandemic hit last spring.

After being made redundant in June, the flight attendant of six years returned to the UK and retrained as a care professional with Radfield Home Care Stamford, Peterborough & Rutland. She now plays a vital role as a key worker, caring for older people who need support during the pandemic.

Although Emma has now settled into her role, it was tough at first to adjust to being made redundant and having to leave the country she’d made her home. She says:

“I was completely devastated when this happened to me. I loved living abroad and I wasn’t ready to come back. But after a while, I tried to embrace it. It was no-one’s fault and I just had to focus on growing and getting experience in something new.”

Emma decided to make the move into home care after friends and family suggested she would enjoy a career caring for others:

“People had always mentioned in the past that I’d do well with caring. I’ve got a lot of empathy and I’ve always enjoyed going the extra mile for people. Once I looked into it, I realised it was something I could really see myself going into. But I didn’t want to go and work for any care sector company just to get money. I wanted to work for the right company where they treat you as a family, look after you and look after their clients.”

Once Emma came across Radfield Home Care, it was the perfect fit. She’s now fully trained, has earned her Care Certificate and has been in the job for five months. Though caring during a pandemic isn’t always easy, Emma’s previous experience has helped her make a success of it:

“I realised I already knew all about customer service, hospitality and working with people. I’d even learnt first aid and handled medication when people boarded flights with health conditions. I think the experiences I built up over my life have led up to what I’m doing now.”

Despite her unexpected change in circumstances, Emma is now loving her new role and the freedom it gives her: “As a flight attendant, my lifestyle was very unhealthy. Now I love that every day is different. As a carer, you build a rapport with people. You look forward to seeing them and they look forward to seeing you. I also like getting out and about and driving between visits.”

James Beech, Owner & Director of Radfield Home Care Stamford, Peterborough & Rutland, comments: “We were very lucky to find Emma. She is caring, reliable and professional and a great example of how we can utilise some fantastic transferable skills to the benefit of older people in our community. We would love to find more people like her!”

Emma has shared her own message to others who may have found themselves in similar situations as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic:

“At first when you lose your job, you feel lost and angry. But you have to keep telling yourself that this has happened for a reason. Day by day and bit by bit, things do get better.”

If you would like to find out more about Radfield Home Care jobs and how you can join the team, you can visit www.radfieldhomecare.co.uk or [email protected] or 01780 755 722.