A SINGLE mother who found
her flair after turning her hand to a spot of home decorating has won an
industry award for her painting and wallpapering.
Emma MacKenzie was doing up
her flat when she realised she had a knack for the trade.
And now, the 23-year-old
from Inverness is working for a painting and decorating firm while holding down
an apprenticeship at Inverness College UHI and single-handedly raising her five-year-old
daughter Lana.
“It’s been a long journey,”
she said. “And there are days when she doesn’t want to go to nursery and I
don’t want to go to work but she knows that I’m trying to do right for her.”
Emma was in for a shock
when, at 17, she discovered she was pregnant.
She said: “I felt OK at the
time but looking back on it I realise I felt like I was secluded, I just felt
lonely all the time.
“In a nutshell, that’s how
it felt, being so young with a baby.”
The former Millburn Academy
pupil landed a hospital cleaning job through Barnardo’s after making links with
the children’s charity at a baby group for young mums.
But she soon became
disheartened.
“It suited me at first
because I needed a job I didn’t have to take home with me,” she said.
“But as time went on I was
just miserable. I knew it wasn’t for me. It wasn’t what I wanted to do but I
wasn’t sure what I could do and I found it a bit depressing.”
Emma kept herself busy at
home, painting her flat, up-cycling bits of old unwanted furniture.
She said: “I painted a
couple of rooms myself. It wasn’t that good but I still enjoyed it and then I
got a few old pieces of furniture and I up-cycled them for my daughter’s room.
It turned out good and I really enjoyed it.
“That’s when I thought
‘right, I really would like to get better at this’.”
And when the college
prospectus landed on her doormat, she decided to act.
Author: Donna
MacAllister
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