How Parkfield Nursery Supported a Colleague Through Cancer Treatment
Parkfield Nursery in Carlisle has long been known as a caring and supportive workplace. In 2025, that culture was tested when Business Manager Barbara Mason was diagnosed with breast cancer. What followed was a sustained, coordinated effort by Manager Julie Laidlaw, the nursery staff, parents, and children to maintain normality, emotional support, and community connection throughout Barbara’s treatment.
This article tells that story through first‑hand accounts from Julie Laidlaw and Barbara Mason.
Background: A Long‑Standing Nursery Community
Parkfield Nursery has been operating for almost 42 years and has retained its founding values throughout multiple expansions.
- Originally staffed by nine team members, caring for 28 children aged two and above
- Now supports children from six months old, with:
- Capacity for 44 children per session
- A team of 22 staff members
Julie Laidlaw joined Parkfield to cover sickness leave and progressed into the Nursery Manager role, supported by Anne and Barbara, who guided her in:
- Business operations (Barbara)
- Staff supervision and parent relationships (Anne)
- Long‑term development of the nursery, including expansion.
How did the nursery support you through your months of chemotherapy and other cancer treatment?
From the very start of my diagnosis, the team at our nursery surrounded me with incredible kindness and understanding. When I began treatment, the staff, parents, and children showed constant support in so many thoughtful ways — from “Pink Days” and coffee mornings to fundraising events and little videos from the children that never failed to lift my spirits.
Because I was unable to come into the nursery while undergoing treatment, the team made sure I was still very much part of nursery life. I was kept updated regularly and included in decisions, which helped me stay connected to the job I love. My Nursery Manager, Julie Laidlaw, has been exceptional — she not only carried out her own demanding role but also took on much of my workload with her usual determination, compassion, and humour. Knowing that the nursery continued to run so smoothly under her leadership gave me peace of mind and allowed me to focus fully on my recovery.
What difference do you think it made for you and your recovery?
The support from everyone at the nursery made a huge difference — emotionally, mentally, and even physically. There were days when treatment felt overwhelming, but the love and encouragement from the nursery community gave me strength and motivation to keep going. When I was actually having my chemo I was explaining to the nurses how I was being supported with videos and photos and they all said what a positive effect things like that have on the patient’s mental wellbeing. They would ask me when I went in for another round what have the children been up to today.
So far the staff and parents have raised over £1500 for the Breast Care Team at our local hospital, and amazing amount in today’s climate.
Feeling connected to work, even from home, gave me a sense of normality and purpose. The care shown by the staff, parents, and children reminded me daily that I wasn’t alone on this journey. I genuinely believe that their positivity and kindness helped me recover more quickly — they lifted my spirits, made me smile on the hardest days, and reminded me of the joy and warmth that surrounds our nursery family.
Julie, in her own words:
Barbara has been a part of Parkfield nursery for 20+ years and I myself have been here for the last 17.
Parkfield has always treated its staff as family. When I first started here there were only nine of us with the capacity of 28 children aged two and above. We now look after children from six months, can have 44 children in per session and have 22 members of staff. I original started work at Parkfield to cover sickness leave and have now worked my way through the ranks to become the manager and supported Anne during the expansion of the nursery.
Our nursery has been open for nearly 42 years now and still has the same owner Anne who is Barbara’s sister.
Barbara and Anne have supported me professionally as I have worked my way up the ladder and they have both taught me the ropes of running the business side of things (Barbara’s domain) and the supervision of staff, working with parents (Anne’s domain) and allowed me to suggest positive changes to the nursery (the expansion of the nursery) to the point where Anne retired in 2000.
Both also supported me personally during my time here from supporting my whole family when the children were little to tragic circumstances of losing my dad to dementia and having to care for him prior to this and losing my 15 year old niece to a car accident both within four months of each other.
When Barbara told me of her potential diagnosis in March 2025 the only thing that was on my mind was to support her in any way that I could. Once the confirmation came through then my only though was to treat Barbara as a person not a victim of cancer and to keep her morale up. The banter between us was and still is great I would say to her: “the things you have to do these days to get a boob job on the NHS!”
Behind closed doors as they say there would be many a phone call to myself in the office on days when she was having a down moment so I would listen talk it through with her. Once off her chest she would then be able to move onto something “normal”.
When we told the staff we did it together and again we approached it with a bit of humour and tried to keep it light. We had a whatsapp group that was called the Barbara update and I would pass on filtered information to the staff to let them know how she was getting on and recovering. Being open with the staff kept them informed and made them part of it all, which we hoped would make them feel safe/confident in their position at the nursery.
I wanted Barbara to know that we were thinking of her so initially organised a care package for her from the staff.
We informed the parents together as well and informed them of what changes would take place which was myself taking over the business side of the nursery dealing with all financial enquiries and invoicing.
I felt that because we were open with parents and staff everyone was accepting of what was happening and with the changes that were necessary.
Once we had the news that Barbara would be needing chemotherapy, I wanted her to know that we were all behind her even though we couldn’t be physically with her. That was when I came up with the idea of turning the nursery pink for the days that she was to have her chemo.
We explained to the parents what we were doing and why and they all supported us. Staff and children dressed in pink for the day, we decorated the outside of the nursery with pink flags/bunting, made breast cancer signs with the children and put them in the window and enjoyed pink activities.
We took lots of photos and made video messages off the children and staff and would send them to Barbara whilst she was receiving her chemo and the days after whilst she was unwell with the chemo (we had parents permission for this). Barbara wasn’t able to come into the nursery due to her supressed immune system, but before she would go to the hospital for treatment, she would drive past the nursery stop outside and give us all a wave and talk to the children at the front gates whom we would bring out. Barbara would also tell them a little bit about why she was losing her hair.
To keep Barbara in the Parkfield working life, I would go out to visit her once a week when she was up to it, keep her up to date on the nursery and tell her about the staff and how they all were. If she was on a good week I would also give her some admin to do as this was and has always been something that Barbara enjoys so was almost therapy for her.
Barbara and myself also spoke on the phone almost every day to talk about everyday normal things. We would talk about our grandbabies or I would ask questions about her treatment and she would talk me through the steps or it could be a very emotional day for Barbara and she just wanted to let it all out. We would also discuss nursery issues and run things past each other. I feel that we have both done a great job at managing to keep nursery life to a very minimal disruption for the staff, parents and children from our close working relationship.
During the last almost nine months Barbara has been supported exceptionally by our local breast cancer unit at the Cumberland infirmary (The Eden breast cancer unit) who have always been available at the other end of a phone for her. This lead to us wanting to support the unit so with the help of the staff we arranged a couple of coffee mornings. One took place in June and the last one in October after Barbara’s last treatment.
Staff gave up their time on a Saturday, donated pink themed tombola prizes and organised activities to do on the coffee mornings. Parents and children current and past were invited and over both coffee mornings we have managed to raise £1500 to donate to our local unit. Many of the parents have commented whilst doing the coffee mornings and raising funds that this has been such a worth while charity as a lot know of someone who has been affected by breast cancer.
Although I have never known someone before who has had to go through the treatment for breast cancer, my aim at the start of this journey was to keep Barbara’s spirits up and to push upon her that she was still Barbara and not just cancer. I wanted her to know that we were all in her corner fighting for her and that she had to slow down and take the time that she needed and we would all still be here when she was out the other side.
Staff have been fantastic. I have had to take on a lot of responsibilities with some very long days but they have understood when I have maybe just needed 20 minutes peace in the middle of the day to just breath and have supported me with ideas that I have come up with for pink days. They also came to realise that if they didn’t write messages on a post-it-note for me then there was a huge possibility I would forget about it so this became a bit of a running joke as to how many post-it-notes did I have left to action.
We are a family and we always look out for each other. I would like to think that staff have now seen what support we can offer them. Barbara and Anne supported me in my time of crisis and there was no way I wasn’t going to support Barbara with hers.
Reacting to what Barbara was going through in the way that I did helped staff to focus on the good that we could do in a difficult situation. They would talk about people who they knew had gone through the same situation. By keeping them informed and focussing their minds on raising funds for our local breast cancer unit helped them to not feel useless and that they couldn’t do anything to make the situation better. Instead they began to focus on Barbara’s morale trying to put a smile on her face because they could do that. By decorating the nursery they knew that this was raising awareness for Barbara and others and by choosing our local breast cancer unit to support they knew that we were helping other women like Barbara in our local area.
I always gave the staff updates on how Barbara was doing and always told them that the effort they were putting into pink days and fund raising hadn’t gone unnoticed by Barbara and that parents had also sent messages of encouragement.
By doing all of the above it did help the staff keep strong and focus on a positive.
