‘I returned to nursing the day the pandemic was declared’

Hannah McDonald was sectioned before starting a nursing shift in 2008, with her uniform in her bag. Diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, she believes she suppressed the grief she felt for three friends who died suddenly when she was a child. It caught up with her years later when she was working as a nurse - she stopped sleeping, eating, started to self -harm, and had suicidal thoughts. She spent nearly 10 years in acute mental health units and a therapeutic community. At times she felt she’d lost everything but Hannah always knew she wanted to return to nursing. Twelve years on she has successfully returned to work as a hospice nurse. But no one could have predicted her first day would be the day the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a global pandemic. It’s not just caring that Hannah has a talent for, as a keen embroiderer she also got a call-up to work on the Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding dress. But when she revealed to a nurse what she’d been doing, they presumed she was delusional! Hannah speaks openly about the past 12 years and as such topics such as self-harm and suicide arise. Presented by Beth Rose. Subscribe on BBC Sounds or say “Ask the BBC for Ouch” to your smart speaker.