Lynne Ward – Care Coordinator

I’m originally from Knottingley but currently live in Eggborough with my wonderful husband Nick and our son Andrew. Nick and I have 5 weddings between us (that’s a story for another time).

My son Andrew is 20 years old and he has had diagnosed with Autism and ADHD from a young age. Since Andrew was born and up to a few years ago I only worked part-time due to Autism, assessments, and appointments battling with mainstream school taking up all my energy and spare time. At that time like many parents that were in my position, I only thought it affected me and at that time there wasn’t much support around in the local community so I thought I would try and change that.

In 2012 I set up a Parent Support Group for Parents of children with additional needs, which apart from Covid restrictions, met up weekly for coffee and a chat, many of the parents just wanted emotional support and I felt I had a lot of experience of my own that I wanted to share with a hope it would help others. We arranged courses with a local charity, Beat Autism and a course called Considered Behaviour.

Also in 2012, I supported a local Adventure Playground to form a weekly play and stay session for families with children with additional needs and their siblings a couple of years later I set up a group for our young people and their siblings where we met on a weekly basis for 2 hours we played games did craft and encouraged socialisation. All 3 groups are still active but due to other commitments, I no longer play a part in them and are run by other parents.

Working in care was something I always wanted to do but never saw myself achieving but after looking after my mother-in-law I knew it was something I could do so I just needed to wait until my son was a little more independent. By this time my son had been attending a specialist school for a number of years and was settled and now had the level of independence to come home with a key for a couple of hours, so I approached a lady in a shoe shop in Castleford who was wearing a Meadow Lodge uniform who worked in the office at Sherburn and asked if there were any jobs available, the rest is history.

I started working for Meadowlodge 4 ½ years ago part-time in the community then 2 years ago I worked a few hours in the office to help out and was so lucky to be offered the position of Care Co-ordinator for the Knottingley & Ferrybridge and Kellington & Eggborough teams.

I thrive on learning and building my knowledge and helping and supporting others. I am thoroughly enjoying working for Meadow Lodge, despite the challenges of Covid and learning my new job role. I absolutely love working in care and I’m very passionate about my job role and the company I work for, long may it continue.