“We all have limited time in our lives – I wasn’t going to waste mine getting upset over cake”

When I first came to the UK, I couldn't speak English. I started working in home care and saw a Marie Curie Nurse looking after a patient. I watched them give a completely different level of palliative care to what I'd seen previously. I just thought: “Oh my gosh, I would love to do that.”

I've been working for Marie Curie for five years now. No two shifts are the same because palliative care is very individual, and every patient has individual needs. Sometimes they're angry, sometimes they're frustrated, sometimes they're happy. Whatever they're feeling, I go into every home with an open mind and open heart.

I would have never signed up for Great British Bake Off myself because I don't think I'm that good. My husband applied for me. When I got the email from the production company, I thought it was spam at first!

Day in and day out, I care for people at the end of life. They often tell me about their big regrets, and it's always about time. So, when I entered the tent, I promised myself I wasn't going to stress if I went home in the second round, third round, whatever, because it's only cake – not a life.

I'm quite a calm person and I have two young boys as well. If they break something and I scream at them, will something good come of it? No. I just say, "never mind" and we try again. It's the same when a person dies, I always feel emotional, but families look up to me, so I don't show them my stress – I have to keep calm for them.

Since being on Bake Off, I receive messages from families saying I cared for their loved one. I feel the love from them, and it's nice to hear that people appreciate me in any kind of way. But it's my job, and I'm not expecting a big applause for the work that I do.

I've baked all my life and growing up on a farm, we used to bake bread so that became my speciality.

You can put all your feelings into bread. You can smash and bang the dough, and you feel much better afterwards. And you have a beautiful bread at the end of it. You can't do that with cupcake, but bread? That's what I do when I get angry: I bake bread.

It might sound strange, but it makes me happy to be with someone at the end of their life. Because if Marie Curie Nurses and Healthcare Assistants weren't there, if our jobs didn't exist, people would die by themselves. It makes me happy because I feel very privileged and humbled.

Christmas is very special for us because we bake a lot of festive biscuits. I'm not that kind of French-style patisserie baker but it's still tasty. My boys will probably be going to bed when I start my shift – well, probably not because they're going to be hyped up – but that's alright. Christmas is part of our job. It's 24/7. People die on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day. Every day.

Christmas can be a sad time when somebody is dying. On a past Christmas I worked, I saw somebody die on Christmas Eve. It sounds strange, but it was almost magical. Their whole family was together, there were lights everywhere, they had music playing. I think the person found more peace because of that.

Everyone is an individual, and we can make a real difference to dying people when we care for them and their families. We deliver the care, and families get time to love without worrying about anything else. That's what's special about Marie Curie Nurses and Healthcare Assistants.

I come home happy if somebody dies the way they want to, whether they're around family or not. When we deliver that, I know I did my best and I know I did it well. And that's what matters.

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