Nottingham Trent University graduate Nicole Goode was pregnant at 17. She's now a a positive role model for young mums.
Platform reports
At the age of 17 Nicole had never wanted children and could not find the courage to tell her parents that she was pregnant.
The first thing her mum said to her was: "You are not the first and you won’t be the last."
Now aged 29 Nicole has fast tracked herself through A levels and finished a degree course at NTU.
After being forced to move into a bed and breakfast accommodation with her baby while studying, she found that The Old Vicarage, Hyson Green, offered accommodation for lone parents and invaluable support.
After she graduated, Nicole was offered a job as senior project worker at a new residential project for teenage mums in Hyson Green.
Nicole says she wanted to help teenage mums move away from the increasingly negative stereotypes that teenage mums will go on to have more and more children.
She is now a positive role model for the seven mums who live in the flats.
 | | Nicole's youngster |
Of her experience, she says: "When I first got my baby home, I thought I would never cope."
" He was waking every two hours. I had to take him everywhere; he was like a sidekick and was like one of those cyber pets that just cry when they want something. It’s a 24-hour job."
"I met my son’s father on the rehabilitation unit where I was living, recovering from a long illness. We decided to get a flat together after being discharged."
"However, shortly after leaving, while staying with him in a bed and breakfast accommodation, I found out that I was pregnant. Although I was scared of not being able to cope, having a baby was the start of new lease of life for me as I had been feeling very depressed."
"After my son’s birth, I started to experience episodes of severe paralysis in my legs and as time went on the situation became so bad that I could hardly walk."
"This was made worse with the fact that my partners drinking problem was more serious than I realised. I was struggling with a screaming baby as well as coping with him returning to the flat completely drunk at all hours of the night."
"In the end the situation became so dangerous and abusive that we parted company when James was only 13 months old."
Nicole now wants to help other young mums avoid some of the mistakes she has made in her life: "This story is not unique, I too am a single mother who has managed to put myself through education."
"During a bout of paralysis I decided to enrol for an intensive one year A Level English course at Clarendon. In spite of being housebound, I completed and passed the A Level in nine months."
"It was suggested that I apply to do a degree at NTU, and to my delight I was offered an unconditional place."
"That was four years ago. Since then, the disability support unit have bought me a computer to use at home and provide note-takers to help me in lectures."
"My mum shares the care of James, she takes him to school and picks him up and also drops me off at university. This has given me the freedom to fulfil a lifelong ambition to be a journalist."
"Having a baby and going to university, as a mature student has been the best thing that ever happened to me." |
