When anxiety forced Kathryn Faulke to give up her NHS job and became a care worker, she never thought she would enjoy it. Now, she has written a ‘love story’ of a book about the profession

Care work, Kathryn Faulke thought as she scoured job adverts, “is a rubbish job. They’re not going to turn me down.” She had, after all, been a senior dietitian and worked for several years in the NHS – a career that had left her with anxiety and burnout. “I saw an advert and it said ‘in exchange for compassion and reliability …’ and I thought that sounded welcoming.” But the truth is, she says: “I just didn’t think I was good enough for anything else.”

In care work, she found the drudgery, exhaustion and low pay she was expecting, but also so much more. “I was blown away by how interesting and meaningful it was,” says Faulke. “And how it made me feel.” The brilliant book she has written about her experience, Every Kind of People, is, she says, “almost like a love story to care. I wasn’t expecting it.” She didn’t want it to be a “worthy” book. “I just want people to see the joy in it.”