Faiza Yasin on embarking on a new career at Great Ormond Street – the hospital that saved her life as a child

'People say home is where the heart is but in my case my heart is literally in GOSH – that’s why I love it here'

Dr Martin Elliott GOSH campaign

For Faiza Yasin, completing her first month in her dream job at Great Ormond Street Hospital is an important milestone. It’s not just a personal achievement after she successfully applied to become a healthcare assistant at one of the country’s top paediatric hospitals, it’s a vindication and a celebration of the quality of care that GOSH gives young children.

That’s because 21-year-old Faiza – from Bray, near Maidenhead – spent much of her childhood in and out of GOSH as a patient under treatment for congenital heart disease. As a child, Faiza underwent five major operations to correct defects in her heart. Now she is walking the corridors she once was pushed down on a trolley, bound for theatre.

The Independent has been following Faiza’s progress throughout our Give to GOSH campaign, watching as she embarks on a new career in the hospital that saved her life. “People say home is where the heart is but in my case my heart is literally in GOSH,” she said. “That’s why I love it here.”

She started training last month and is already making herself known as a friendly character at GOSH, where she has been a volunteer for more than a year and sits on the Young People’s Forum, which works to improve the overall experience of teenage patients at GOSH.

She said: “The hardest week was my theatre induction. On the first day I saw a tracheotomy. It was one of the hardest things I have been through – to watch them doing the incision and cutting into the child. I imagined myself lying on that bed. It was tough, but seeing how much care is taken to keep that patient there and stable makes you realise how amazing the surgical team is.”

It was her own experience as a patient at GOSH that convinced Faiza she would be in a position to help and reassure young patients who are anxious about their treatment.

As a healthcare assistant, she is responsible for taking observations, measuring heart rates and blood pressure and keeping track of medical files. Faiza works on Puffin Ward, which is where children come before being admitted to the day-surgery unit, but her plan is to return to university to train as a paediatric cardiac nurse and then one day come back to GOSH to work on the ward on which she was treated as a child – now called Bear Ward, but in those days Ladybird Ward.

“I’m thinking about taking a post-graduate degree in paediatric nursing,” she said. “I’ve promised myself to keep going and keep challenging myself,” she said.

Cardiac treatment is something Faiza cares deeply about, and she is urging Independent readers to support the Give to GOSH appeal and help support a new 14-bed unit for children who are suffering from heart failure and waiting for a transplant.

Faiza’s childhood operations were successful but she says she gets tired easily and that the 5am wake-up call for her shifts can be challenging. “My family say I am crazy to spend so much time here but GOSH has been such a big part of my life, so it’s wonderful to be able to give something back. A lot of people would regret being ill but in some ways I am glad because it has made me the person I am.”

Faiza may at some point need another heart operation, to replace an artificial valve. “I don’t want it to stop me from living my life,” she said. “In this place I see kids sadly pass away. I could have been one of them, but I was saved.”

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