Olivia’s Story

Olivia’s Story

When Olivia was born she was diagnosed with congenital dislocation of the hips, both of her hips were round the wrong way, she also had no hip sockets.  When she was 11 years old she had an operation to correct this, but still the doctors couldn’t confirm if she would be able to walk. The first 4 years of Olivia’s life was spent in a plaster cast, once these were taken off the long process of learning to walk began. Olivia was told that she would develop arthritis in her early 20’s and most likely need another operation in her late 20’s.

Throughout her whole life Olivia’s hips have dislocated and this would cause her so much pain, when she was 16 she started noticing that her left hip was becoming more and more painful. This happened a few months after beginning her apprenticeship with Visions Hair Academy in Sussex. Olivia took herself back to the doctors to be told that she now had Avascular Necrosis, in other words her hip bone was crumbing away. The doctor described it like bread crumbling in your hands, she also found out that the arthritis had kicked in much earlier than expected.

With this news Olivia’s first thought was how am I going to finish my apprenticeship? Olivia had a real flair for hair, it ran in the family, her mum was a hairdresser and she wanted to follow her mum’s footsteps. Visions put Olivia on a planned break as she needed a hip replacement as soon as possible. Visions always guaranteed her place within the academy. Olivia had to take 6 months out of training, in this period she asked for any paperwork she could complete at home as she didn’t want to fall behind. Whilst being off work the salon that she currently worked for had to let her go, so she was longer employed.  Olivia not only had an operation as well as receiving bone marrow, she was now out of a job. Olivia said “there were stages where I thought I will never be able to get back into Hairdressing let alone find another job” As Olivia became more mobile Visions managed to set her up an interview near to where she lived, the interview was a success! After a long 6 months of being out of the academy Olivia returned raring to go.

Olivia now is coming to the end of her apprenticeship and has completed extra units in her NVQ, this is something she never thought she would be able to achieve, she has also secured a job with her salon as a full-time stylist.