Meet Catherine Ashton, one of our homes’ heroes!

I joke with my daughter that we see more of each other now we work together than we do at home.

We both work at Bilton Court care home. I’ve been here about a year-and-a-half, and Emma - also a care assistant - joined nine months ago.

I get huge job satisfaction from what I do. I love everything about it – no two days are the same.

Things have changed as a result of Coronavirus. For their own safety, our residents aren’t able to have visits from their loved ones. They do miss that, but we’ve been working 200 per cent to keep them in contact, to ensure they’re looking their best, and plan plenty of activities.

We’ve got an iPad in the home, so we’ve been using that to Skype and Facetime with family members, or for those relatives who don’t use technology, to arrange phone calls. Where residents are a bit hard-of-hearing, I’ve been relaying the phone messages backwards and forwards – it’s nice to see the smile on our residents’ faces when they hear those messages.

Today we’ve been painting rainbows with our residents and we’ll be putting those up in the lounge. We’ve also been making keyrings, and a few of us put on a dance in the garden. We’ve had flowers delivered by local supermarkets and schoolchildren sending in letters and pictures too.

It is a concerning time, but I can genuinely say no-one brings their worries into work. I’m so proud of how everyone in the team has pulled together, everyone is going above and beyond – it’s just amazing! I’m really grateful I work here. My manager, Carley, has been great and has said that if we have trouble getting hold of any of life’s essentials, just to let her know.

Living only five minutes’ away means it’s easy to get to work and I’ve been putting in a lot of hours, but my family have been really supportive – they understand the importance of what I do.

Catherine Ashton is a care assistant at Bilton Court care home in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.