'Results don't define you' - Woman who left school with no A-levels qualifies as a nurse

A woman who has recently qualified as a nurse in Bath after trying for seven years is encouraging others to believe they can achieve their dream job too.

Charlie Gerrish left school with no A-levels and was unsure of what she wanted to do - but has since worked her way up to the role at the Royal United Hospital (RUH).

The 32-year-old mum of two received a lot of love when she shared the good news on X, formerly Twitter, with more than 122,000 people liking her post.

She now wants others to know that it's okay to be unsure of what you want to do, ahead of A-level results day.

Charlie said: "I think it's really hard when you leave school at the age of 18, to know what you want - to know that's what you want to do with your life.

"I'd like to tell people that it's okay not to know what you want to do, that you can do it later in life, that you can still go to university, it's just a different way of doing it."

For the last three years, Charlie has been studying to become a nurse while working as a healthcare assistant at the RUH in Bath.

She joined the NHS seven years ago with no experience, having failed her first year of A Levels and decided that the academic route was not for her.

She then took on a number of apprenticeships while at the hospital, and went back to college to get her GCSE in maths so that she could apply for university.

Despite being rejected by one university for only having professional experience instead of A-levels, Charlie was accepted onto the blended course at the University of Gloucestershire.

This then saw her balance her job as a healthcare assistant, spending two days a week studying from home and looking after her two young children.

Charlie also had to accrue 2,300 hours of unpaid placement across the three years, while paying for the degree herself.

But despite the difficult journey, Charlie said she has not always known that she wanted to do - and wants others to know that that is okay.

"I'm not one of these that knew that was like 'I knew I wanted to be a nurse from the minute that I...' It wasn't until I was actually in the atmosphere that I was like 'Oh, I would actually like to be a nurse'.

"Obviously now I'm just like, I would promote anyone to become a nurse", she added.

Charlie hopes her own career will inspire others, particularly "people that maybe don't do as well at school, that they can still achieve what they want to achieve".

She said: "You can still achieve your dreams. Results don't define you. I didn't get any A-Level results but I've still got to where I want to be in my life at the moment. I think it's just knowing that you can still get to where you want to be - you don't have to go straight from school.

"Not everyone knows what they want to do with their life. I had children, I got married and then I've got my career now, my kids are older and I can actually can give 100% because my kids are older.

"That's what I tell my children: as long as you do well, and you get to where you want to be in life. Everybody is so different in life and everybody has different goals."

Throughout the seven years at the RUH, Charlie has worked on the same surgical ward and she said the whole team have helped her through being a healthcare assistant and then becoming a nurse.

But Charlie's colleagues were equally surprised when her post went viral, having now been viewed more than four million times.

"I was just... I don't understand why, I still don't", Charlie said.

"It just blew up! Everyone on Twitter [X] was so supportive, I don't think I had one bad comment at all, which I think just goes to show that everyone's very proud."

Despite her success being shared by tens of thousands of people around the country, Charlie remains very humble. She said: "I'm not sure why I went viral - I don't know how I'm any different from anyone else who's become a nurse."

Charlie said her children, aged nine and 11, told her she "needs to go on TikTok", because they think their mum would get "so many views".

For now though, Charlie wants to settle into life as a nurse - but she has already has thought that she might quite like to work in the hospital's Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU) in the long-term.