A woman who left school with no qualifications and fell pregnant with her first child at 18 before having six children from three relationships, with one of the fathers dying unexpectedly, now feels “nothing is out of reach” as she studies to become a midwife in her late 40s after winning awards for her baby massage business concept. Carol Grech, 47, grew up on a council estate as the eldest of five girls, where she said her family “didn’t have much” but she had a “lovely childhood”.
In her teenage years, she said she was “a bright girl who was ready to learn” but felt her opportunities were “limited”, and given that she attended a “poor performing school” and had dyslexia, which had not yet been diagnosed, she left with no GCSEs. Carol then qualified as a hairdresser and fell pregnant at 18, but decided to leave her partner – who she does not want to name – while eight months pregnant with their second child, because of his drug addiction as she realised she could not “save him from himself”.
She then met her first husband – who she also does not want to name – when she was 20, going on to have three more children. It was during this marriage that her partner from her previous relationship died unexpectedly on New Year’s Eve following a night out.
