At 19, Paula King, was given the task of taking a bipolar family member to the hospital for a check up.
It was here where she fell in love with nursing, inspired by the black doctors and nurses she saw at the Manchester Royal Infirmary’s Rawnsley Building.
From there she embarked on a 30 year career working as a community nurse in places such as Moss Side, Levenshulme and Longsight before settling at the Royal Manchester Infirmary where she is currently a governor.
Throughout the years, Paula, 50, became disheartened by the number of black men and women in the mental health wards lacking the resources they needed to properly look after themselves.
Desperate to see a change, she is now the founder of the Fika Welie group, a team of black professionals who are fundraising to build a culturally appropriate mental health unit for Caribbean and African men and women.
“I was disheartened at seeing black people again and again and the way they looked, they weren’t being cared for…
