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It is always interesting how people find their paths. For Abigail, she says she has been familiar with pharmacy all her life, as growing up, she would constantly be collecting prescriptions for her sickly grandma. Still, she never imagined that she would end up working in one.
Back to beginnings
Following her completion of school and further studies, Abigail still wasn’t sure what career she wanted to pursue, or where her main strengths lay. “After university, I came out and I didn’t have a job. I became a delivery driver for a florist and the post office,” she says.
“I had a friend who worked in a pharmacy, and they asked if I wanted to be the pharmacy’s delivery driver, so I began there. Then my friend left, and I moved into the pharmacy.”
Abigail recalls the amazing feeling of going from not having any idea of what she wanted to do, to joining the pharmacy team and finding her feet. “I became good [at the job] and I really loved it,” she says.
She quickly undertook the dispensary assistant’s course and completed it in six months, then went on to do the medicine counter assistant course when she began at Well Pharmacy. “It is just short of 10 years ago now that I started at Well. There were so many opportunities in the pharmacy. After my first year, I applied to become a technician.”
She also became the pharmacy’s Healthy Living Champion and branch ambassador. “Caring for the customer is at the heart of my role and it is important that this is integrated into everything that I do,” she explains.
Receiving recognition
It was around this time that Abigail was nominated for a Recognition of Excellence (RoE) Award, which she ended up winning in the Rising Star category in 2017, which has since been renamed the Best Newcomer Award.
“I couldn’t believe I had won it. I am just little me from Oldham. I had never won anything in my whole life.” She remembers the day fondly, as it also happened to be the day she found out that she would be doing the pharmacy technician course as well as the Future Leaders UK programme. “Again, I never expected it. I applied for both and I got both.”
Then came 2020 and Covid-19, and Abigail moved branches. For the RoE Awards that year, Training Matters introduced a Covid-19 Hero Award to highlight the extreme dedication and hard work by individuals and teams across the pharmacy sector that year. Abigail was once again nominated, and this time, received Highly Commended.
“I worked countless hours during that time. When I received the parcel in the mail with the certificate, that came at such a special time because I wouldn’t say I was happy,” she says. “I still have the framed certificate up on my wall and I look at it every day.”
“Your job is not your identity, but being a technician is, because I worked so hard to get it”
Moving on up
Abigail has since taken on yet another qualification. She is now working towards becoming a pharmacist herself. “My dad suggested it to me, because I was loving it so much. At first I thought, ‘no way’, but now here I am,” she says.
“It is going to be a bit of a culture shock and I think the change from technician to pharmacist will be big. Being a technician is important to me. Your job is not your identity, but being a technician is, because I worked so hard to get it.”
She is, however, looking forward to the change, and notes that the thing that matters – the connection to customers – remains unchanged.
Her supportive team and management have also been crucial to Abigail’s continued success in the pharmacy. “My manager Nikita is so supportive, not just in my degree and work, but in my personal life too. Anything I need, she is there for me,” she says.
“I never expected to find my best friend in the pharmacy, either, but I had a pharmacist, Ridaa, and although we are 10 years apart we are the best of friends.” Before they had become friends, Ridaa offered to help Abigail at any point in her studies to becoming a pharmacist.
“I took her up on it, and she helped me – an absolute stranger at the time,” explains Abigail. “These are the bonds made in pharmacy. Patients and team members become friends.”
Reflecting on her journey, Abigail spoke of how grateful she is for finding pharmacy. “It was never a thing at school, and when picking your A-Levels. They don’t tell you about pharmacy,” she says. “I love pharmacy, I really do. I found the one thing that I am good at, and I didn’t think that I would,” she says.
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In Practice