A nursing student from Welwyn Garden City has overcome challenging hurdles to finish her degree from the University of Hertfordshire with a First.
The inspiring mum of three, Karen Harris, used her troubles to push through the finish line of her degree - taking a career change later in life.
Karen said: “Now that it’s all over, it feels a little bit unbelievable. I look back on the years that have gone by and I wonder how on earth I made this happen. I am very much delighted and look forward to my graduation."
Karen had been a stay-at-home mum until 2017, when her husband was diagnosed with Stage 4 bowel cancer.
Following her husband's death in March 2020, Karen decided to find a career that fulfilled her and provided for her children.
“Aside from my husband dying, this is the hardest thing that I have ever done in my life. I do have three children, but this was on another level because of the timing of it.
“My husband had just died, COVID happened, I had to do twelve-and-a-half-hour placement shifts and I was doing online lectures while home-schooling three grieving children.
"I just don’t have the words to explain how difficult that was. It was really hard to juggle the mental side of it and the academic side.” 
Speaking about her graduation ceremony coming up, Karen said: “I would love for my children to come, but we’re only allowed two tickets so my dad and step-mum will be attending as they were key cheerleaders in this.
"My sister will be sitting on stage because she is a lecturer in Adult Nursing. So, she will be there too, and she will be trying not to ugly cry."
Karen hopes she has shown her children they can achieve anything, and that they are inspired by her accomplishment.
She said: “My children were really pleased for me and once I explained what it meant and I showed them my certificate, they understood how hard I had worked for it, but they are kids, so they were just like “right, and what are we doing now”.”
“They might be too young now, but everyone always tells me that this will inspire them, but I think as time goes on and they get older and start following their own dreams, they will be able to draw from me and other people in these situations and knuckle down and be able to go after whatever they want."
Reflecting on her time at UH, Karen said: “The university was amazing. I had the most amazing personal tutors, and - on many occasions - I would arrange a Zoom call and just cry. They would always put me before the degree, whereas I would always put the degree before myself.
"They would always tell me that me and the children were the most important thing, and the degree doesn’t really matter, so I always felt like I had somebody there to catch me.” 
“I finished my final nursing placement at Lister at the Children’s Emergency Department in August and since then I have been trying to pick myself up and sort my life out and take a break.
“I have been catching up with friends, fixing things around the house, going to the gym, Netflix binging, eating random things at any time of the day. I think I am getting a bit bored though, so I am looking forward to going back to work and getting some money.
“I will be going back to work on Monday at Lister where I’ll be working for the Children’s Day Services, and the hours are much better.
"I know I’ll be well supported, but I am a bit nervous and excited!”
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