Donna Ashworth

Changed career.

My husband changed career because we were out of jobs because of the lockdown.

So completely, this is a lockdown pivot moment now.

that I'm still very much enjoying.

So my husband and I owned a children's play centre, a very large, you know, with all the ball pools and the noise and chaos constantly, which, you know, we thought would be a lovely family business to run.

But what we didn't realise is seven days a week.

And you only close on New Year and, you know, Christmas Day.

It's very, very full on.

So we were doing that and we were ready to move on from it after 10 years.

I was ready to move on from it after a year.

But we loved the staff as well.

And we loved, you know, the custom.

It was joyful in many ways, but it was a lot.

But of course, lockdown, it was the first thing to go.

Children's play centres had to close immediately because they are germ.

So we were suddenly in a position where we went, right, OK, what now?

And I saw it as quite a good opportunity to move on from something that might have been quite difficult to move on from.

But my husband and I ended up moving from Manchester to Scotland with no jobs and no idea of what we were quite going to do next.

And the world had turned overnight.

So everything was different and new and terrifying.