Chloe Lucas, a nurse who struggled with trauma during the Covid-19 pandemic, found healing and solace by buying a herd of Highland cows after being inspired by Clarkson's Farm.
After volunteering on various farms, she now tends to five cows in Wickford, Essex, and describes them as her "little escape" that helped her recover from a nervous breakdown.
After volunteering on various farms, she now tends to five cows in Wickford, Essex, and describes them as her "little escape" that helped her recover from a nervous breakdown.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Hiya, so my name is Chloe. I'm 38 years old. I live in a town called Basildon. I qualified
00:08as a nurse 10 years ago, so I'm a paediatric sister now at Basildon Hospital. And during
00:14COVID, we got redeployed to the adult ITU. And unfortunately, we saw some horrific things
00:20where people were losing their lives in these ITU departments. They were saying bye to family
00:25and friends on phones and iPads. Families weren't able to come in and see them. And
00:30for me as a nurse, that took a really big hit on my mental health. And I ended up being
00:36off sick for three months. I started watching Countryfile, This Is My Farm Life, wanting
00:43to look to being outdoors and outside countryside. And Clarkson's Farm came on the telly. And
00:51I watched it and absolutely fell in love with it. So I know obviously it was entertainment
00:55purposes, but it taught me so much actually about where our food comes from and what farmers
01:00do. And I got this little fire in my belly and I was like, right, I want to research
01:04and look into this. So we went up to Chipping Norton to the Cotswolds, went to Clarkson's
01:10Farm, met some people up there, just had a chat. And that's when I decided I want to
01:14volunteer on farms. So it took me about five weeks posting letters, I was knocking on farmer's
01:20doors, putting out social media posts to volunteer on farms. And I got my first job
01:25on a beef and sheep farm. And then all of a sudden, somebody approached me and was like,
01:31you know, we really are inspired by your story. We're going to be getting some rented land,
01:36which was in Malden. So it's about an hour away from us, it's salt marshes. And they
01:41said, do you want to get some Highland cattle and get your foot in the door, basically.
01:45So you're either going to sink or swim. And then all of a sudden, I've ended up with two
01:48Highlands, they were nine months old, and didn't really know where I was going, like,
01:54you know, to progress from that. So went and did some courses, like some animal husbandry
02:00courses, looked into sort of researching, like, you know, owning livestock. I absolutely
02:05loved it. I loved that I had that to go to, you know, so I work as a nurse. I'm also working
02:10at Barleylands, which is part of the education team. But this is almost like my release.
02:15So now I've got five beautiful Highlands. And from what I wanted to do with that, because
02:19that helped my mental health, they basically saved me and helped me from what we went through
02:24with COVID. I've decided to bring the public in. So public come in, meet and greet the
02:30Highlands. And I teach them basically about their breed. If they want to know anything
02:34from like a farming perspective, like, you know, where their food comes from, how it's
02:38produced, what farmers do to produce food, you know, I encourage them to go to their
02:42local farms to see if they could volunteer. And the people that have had to come here
02:47have said actually how much it's improved and helped their mental health and their well-being.
02:52So that is where I am at the moment.