Close friends become new business partners in Brent
Long-time friends and now new business partners, Trishna Patel and Shelly Verma have fulfilled their mutual goal of opening a home care business to support their local community.
Up until now, Patel’s career has spanned retail and data analytics. She had been working as a tender specialist with a medical products company, and Verma was working as an electronics engineer.
The dive into home care came as a result of bereavement and a deep desire by both women to provide care to other people’s loved ones when their families are not always present.
Story continues below
Verma said: “We both knew that a business providing care and support to vulnerable people was the right move for us. It just made sense on every level.
“Now we are really excited to be trading and look forward to seeing our care staff out in the community and the difference our service will make to people’s everyday lives.
“Caremark Brent offers personal care and support to adults, but we’re keen to also offer more complex care and specialist services in the future.”
With family back in India, both women did not see their parents very often and the pandemic unfortunately made visits home more difficult.
Then in 2021 Patel’s father became seriously ill and, unable to get home quickly because of circumstances, she felt the pain of not being there.
Patel explained: “Being unable to be with my mother and support her to care for my extremely ill father was distressing. I so wanted to be there, but my own family commitments made it difficult to just up and leave.
“I did make it home before he died, and we had two very special weeks together.
“It was at that point I vowed that if I could not be there for my mother and for my Dad when he was so ill, then I would be there for other people’s loved ones.”
Verma added: “In our culture, it is common for several generations to live together, and so there is always family there helping care for loved ones who are sick or simply getting older.
“We’re very focussed now on building a great care service for our local community and supporting people to live safe and happy lives.”