Having just graduated the week before with a level 8 degree in Social Care, Michelle Smyth could not believe her luck, that her best friend and sister, Lynda, nominated for her for our Ulster Mum of The Year. 

“Lynda rang me up and said, ‘I’ve got some good news for you. You’ve been just been selected as a winner for Mum of The Year with Woman’s Way Magazine’.  I was so chuffed; I didn’t believe her for ages.”

Throughout the pandemic Michelle finished her final year of a 4-year honours degree in social care at Dundalk Institute of Technology.

Having left school at 17 years of age, the mother went back to college as a mature student after working for 20 years as a dental nurse and rearing her young family. However, what makes Michelle that little bit more powerful, she completed this full time course while at the same time holding down a full time job, as a family support worker and then in residential care with adults with intellectual disabilities, while also being a wonderful Mammy to her three children now aged 17, 15 and 11.

“I’m a people person, I just always wanted to be able to give something back and spend time with people. I would never be suitable to an office job, I need to be active, and work with people. Mu family had a pub, where I was born and raised in, I’ve seen lots of social problems over the years through different customers, so it just kind of gave me an insight to what’s going on out there. I wanted to put myself out there and work in that area.”

Throughout the social care studies, she had both a sick husband and daughter to mind all while submitting endless assignments and a dissertation. I asked her how she stayed so calm and motivated despite such a challenging and worrying time.

“I think you just do it, when you’re in that zone, you just get on with it, there is no real time to speak. It’s only now that I’m finished, and I have a bit of time on my hands, I actually stop and think how I managed it all?” recalls Michelle. “Throughout the start, my husband was sick, he got cancer. Our daughter was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in the middle of it all, she's been very sick the past few years, I sat in Crumlin Hospital many a week, and worked away on my assignments when I was with her and went for it. I never felt sorry or had any sympathy for myself, I just kept telling myself to put the head down and keep going.”

Choose a job you’ll love and you will never work a day in your life, Michelle is a true example of this.

“At the moment, I'm working in residential care, with adults who have intellectual disabilities, and I just love it. I'm a team lead there now, and I love getting up and going to work, it's not a chore. It's not it doesn't feel like a hard job, I just enjoy my day when I go in there to do 12-hour shifts. I just I love being there and I'm and I'm working with the residents and is just so rewarding.”

Michelle’s caring nature doesn’t stop there, throughout the early stage of the pandemic back in March, the mother set up a food bank for her local community.

“At the start of Covid, I had worked in family support previously, and I know that there are difficulties out there, and there are people struggling, and that they aren't getting help. I set this up, hoping to help people that were just too proud to ask for help from any other charities.  I did that for about three months and things then started to slow down and I got a lot of satisfaction from that, talking from families, being able to supply them with cereals, and treats for the kids. At Easter time, I got Easter eggs for the kids, and went around to deliver them to the families. Again, it was so rewarding.”

Family is everything to Michelle, she states that she wouldn’t be where she is today without their love and support.

“My family is the driving force behind me. My sister, Lynda, when I was doing my assignments, read over everything all and she would have, corrected all my grammar and spelling mistakes and help add bits into it. I got really good advice from her throughout it all. She has a way with words and is a really good sister, I’m really lucky. My Mam, and Dad, they would help me when I was in college, picking the kids up for school, making dinner, which made things so much easier for me. She has a way with words and is a really good sister, I’m really lucky.”

Lastly, I asked Michelle what being a mother means to her. 

“Oh, means the world and more. Being a mum is all I've ever wanted to be from a young age. My children are everything to me, I couldn’t’ imagine life without them, they are a really big part of my life. I have an excellent husband too, things have been though, it has been a rollercoaster of a year for us as a family, but we stuck together, and we have always been there for one another and this wouldn’t be possible without Derek I’m really blessed with the best family.”