Tania shares her inspiring journey of overcoming adversity and reinventing herself—twice—while balancing the demands of family life and her evolving career…
Name
Tania
Old Position
Nurse
New Career
Peer educator and freelance copy writer
Can you tell us about your current role?
I’m doing three different things at the moment.
I’m working with the Department for Education to mentor childminders. I do a couple of hours a week to pass on my experience and knowledge.
Last year, I became an autism peer educator for Autism Central in partnership with Ambitious About Autism and Contact. I deliver webinars and workshops in schools on autism topics such as dealing with anxiety and meltdowns. My two teenage daughters are autistic and it means I can help other people but also support them.
I’ve also launched my freelance copywriting business, TaniaRossCopy. Helping people to find their voice and their brand voice is inspiring.
While I was there, I had a massive, unchosen career change because I sustained a serious back injury. I was only 25 and it put paid to my clinical nursing career, which was devastating.
You’ve had a couple of previous major career changes. Can you tell us about them?
Yes, I’ve had quite a few career changes – some of them planned, most of them not.
After qualifying as a registered general nurse in 1991, I worked at Los Angeles County Hospital. Then I went travelling in India, doing voluntary work with Mother Theresa’s charity.
When I came back, I worked at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. I had a massive, unchosen career change when I sustained a serious back injury. I was only 25 and it ended my clinical nursing career.
I went on to head up the new National Hepatitis C Resource Centre. While I loved the work, it wasn’t really a nursing role, so after two years I moved sideways move to become the Lead Nurse at the Prostate Cancer Charity.
What made you decide to change careers first time round?
When I had my first child, I felt that I couldn’t cope with such a big job while being a mum and I didn’t want to leave my daughter.
My mother had done childminding when I was growing up, so I looked into it. People loved the fact that I was a nurse.
I was a childminder for 15 years, looking after about 40 kids over that time. I also qualified as a Forest School Practitioner. It really worked when my daughters were little. I had school holidays and weekends off.
What led you to leave that career as a childminder?
When my marriage ended in 2021, it was a huge shock to me. Under the circumstances, I couldn’t continue childminding. But I had already been getting itchy feet and hitting the menopause made me question if I could continue to look after young children while dealing with sore joints.
When my marriage ended in 2021 it was a huge shock to me. Under the circumstances, I couldn’t continue to do childminding.
How did you choose your new career path for the second time?
Like many women of my age, I probably lost confidence and thought no one will employ me now, which is kind of ridiculous when you look at my skillsets and experience.
The copywriting business idea came from a side hustle I had while I was childminding – writing erotica under a pseudonym. A friend said, ‘You’re a writer. You should do copywriting’.
The role as autism peer educator came about because I was on the mailing list for Contact, the charity for families with disabled children.
I got an email from them about paid opportunities to support other families. It matched my skillset as a nurse and my previous roles in charities.
I realised I missed that. I’m passionate about supporting people with diseases and conditions. In this role I help families and carers to make the right decisions and help them to navigate the minefield of coping with diagnoses. It allows me to support other parents but also to learn how to help my own children.
What support have you had when making your career change?
I’m on the pathway to getting my diagnosis of ADHD but it’s 100% certain that I have it.
Citing my ADHD symptoms and struggles, I successfully applied to the Access to Work programme. I’m now getting government support in terms of business and ADHD coaching, mental health support, Grammarly (an AI writing tool), equipment and business support. It’s very helpful.
I’ve also been doing some courses with a company called TechPixies who are all about helping women of my age start a business, return to work or change careers. They teach tech skills and couple that with mindset coaching. It’s been great for building a supportive community of like-minded women.
What transferable skills did you find that you had?
Certainly, resilience and adaptability. Being able to pick up something new and get on with it. I’ve also learned to ask for help. I think that’s really important. I realised when I was doing my business plans for the autism peer educator role and copywriter business that the two business are very aligned. They’re both about taking complex information, decoding it and presenting it to have the most impact on the target audience.
The copywriting business came from a side hustle I had while I was doing the childminding – writing erotica under a pseudonym. Like many women of my age, I probably lost confidence and thought no one will employ me now, which is kind of ridiculous when you look at all my skillsets and experience.
