Actress Lauren Socha says praise for care home work is bizarre

Bafta-winning actress Lauren Socha has been working as a care assistant during the coronavirus outbreak - but called praise for doing so "a bit bizarre".

She was called "amazing" after tweeting about her job, but insisted she was no different from her colleagues and others helping during the pandemic.

The Misfits actress had recently finished filming a BBC TV series.

Socha, from Derby, has been working as a care assistant alongside her acting career since she was 21.

Now 29, Socha said her work in a Derbyshire care home was "massively rewarding".

"I just find all this a bit bizarre, the recognition for it when there are thousands of important people who are doing more than what I'm doing," she said.

"These people need us and they can't see their families so we are the only friendly faces they can see, so you have to remain in high spirits for them.

"They are elderly, vulnerable people, and some of them are so scared about it."

Socha won a Bafta for her role in Channel 4 series Misfits and her latest project has been a BBC series called The Other One, which was piloted back in 2017.

The series is due to air in a few months, meaning the care home residents could watch it while she is working there.

"I don't tell them what I do," she said. "I don't see myself as anything other than Lauren."

She said none of the people living at the home had contracted coronavirus but she did worry about giving it to her four-year-old daughter Reenie-Rae, who has asthma.

"I would never forgive myself if I made my daughter get it," she said.

"They are absolutely fine [the residents] but that's down to us as the care workers, to make sure we are keeping ourselves clean and washing our hands.

"When I come back home the first thing I do is put my uniform in the washing machine. I'm literally going from home to work and from work to home and I'm self-isolating. We are all following the guidelines."

The actress's mother, who used to be a social worker, has come out of retirement to be a community care worker.

"She lives comfortably but she doesn't want to sit there and do nothing," said Lauren.

"Every carer who is putting themselves on the line and getting up in the morning, community care workers who are also in the firing line going out working, they should be recognised for all the hard work they are doing."

Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.