Marie Robson has lived in Newton Aycliffe since 1976 and attended Woodham Comprehensive School. She began her career as a care assistant and ended up managing the care home. It was the first small care provider to achieve Investors in People in the North East and Marie attended many events as guest speaker with Business Link, promoting Investors in People to small businesses.
In her mid 20’s she became the youngest postmistress in Britain on buying a small village post office near Bishop Auckland which she sold 3 years later when her first child Harry was born in 2000 followed by her daughter Millie in 2002.
Marie began volunteering for a local charity and was fortunate enough to be employed by them and spent 4 years gaining several promotions co-ordinating various community projects managing a team of staff and volunteers.
She achieved Level 5 in Leadership and Management and in 2016 decided to take a break to continue her studies full time. After completing a Business Management degree in May 2017 she was secured a Senior Management position for a healthcare organisation in Newcastle in charge of over 200 staff.
Unfortunately, only one week into the new post her daughter Millie was seriously injured in the Manchester Terror Attack and their family life was turned upside down. Millie needed several operations and spent two weeks in Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and then many more weeks recovering at home.
“Commuting to Newcastle daily and working around appointments as well as the emotional turmoil my family have been through meant I had to rethink my career and family commitments. I owed it to the organisation who had been so supportive and accommodating to resign from my position”. said Marie.
“This was a difficult thing to do as I have always worked hard but I had to find a role that could be flexible given that Millie still attends appointments both at James Cook Hospital and Manchester and will require future surgery.”
“I decided to bring my 5 year plan of working for myself forward and have set up my own business consultancy MHM Guru. I have an office in the Blue Bridge Centre and will be providing businesses with tailored packages to suit their requirements. Changing management, business development, internal communications, staff health & wellbeing are just some of the services I can offer. Please visit my website www.mhmguru.co.uk” said Marie.
In addition to running her own company Marie wanted to use her years of health experience to provide a social support network for young people affected by trauma/ptsd. “Bee Happy 2gether” hopes to provide a wide range of activities such as trampolining, bowling, arts & crafts, horse riding, exercise classes, football, days out etc. to young people and their families.
Bee Happy 2gether received funding from Manchester Rotary Club and hope to receive further donations. A company from Sheffield has donated a telephone system to enable Bee Happy 2gether to provide telephone support with the help of trained counsellors and volunteers. Anyone wanting further information can contact Marie: marie@beehappy2gether.org.uk
Marie said: “I wanted to show my children that no matter what life throws at us hard work and supporting others is the only way to be.”
Marie achieved a 2.1 BA (Hons Business Management Degree in June 2017 as she always enjoyed studying and learning new skills and been passionate supporting others whether in a business or caring capacity.
With her partner Anth she would like to thank family, friends and kind people of Newton Aycliffe for their continued support.
