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My father was a senior physician in Poland when the Second World War began. He spent the war fighting the Russians on the Eastern Front where he was arrested and sent to one of Stalin’s labour camps.
I was born and bred in Nottingham, but my parents came here in 1962 from Ghana. We were the only Black people on the whole of the street where we lived.
I was recruited from the Philippines in 2000 as part of a 40 person batch. It was my first time leaving my family and going abroad. I was feeling really lonely, but at the same time excited because it was a new chapter for me.
Before the independence of India from the British Empire, Britain brought workers from India to East Africa to build the railways. That’s how my family came to be in Kenya. Political upheaval began in the late 1960s and my dad got concerned. He thought we needed to move out before there were any major issues. Because we had British passports as a result of Kenya being a former British colony, we were advised to come here. My dad came first and the rest of the family came about a year later.
When I came over from Zimbabwe in 2002 it was an experiment really. I used to work in a good job back home, but my friend was here and kept saying, “You need to come over to the UK,” so I just wanted to try and see how it goes. I’m still here; it’s been more than 20 years of my life.
I came over from Manila in the Philippines in 1970 to train at the Westminster School of Nursing in London. I'm from a large family and being the oldest girl of nine children, I knew that I had to make some decisions about my future and fast!
I came from Pahang, Malaysia in 1975 at 22, to train in Psychiatric Nursing at Severalls Hospital, Essex. At the time, there were few job opportunities in Malaysia for Chinese immigrants like me due to the government’s discriminatory programme favouring native Malays.
I made the journey to Severalls Hospital, Essex, from Penang, Malaysia in 1971 to seek a better life. I wanted the nurse training that I couldn't get in Penang despite going to numerous interviews.
I came from Santiago, Ilocos Sur, Philippines on February 10th 1976 to be an auxiliary nurse at the Royal Hospital. I wanted to come to the UK because I saw that our neighbours who had come had been successful and they were living an abundant life.
I came from Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia to train in general nursing at Lewisham Hospital in 1966, after secondary school. I came from a family of 12 children. There was no way my family could afford to send me to go overseas, so studying nursing was the only solution to go abroad to explore.
