Working with the elderly and vulnerable during the coronavirus crisis has helped "put things into perspective” for former Love Island star Malin Andersson.
Andersson, 27, previously trained as a carer and decided to return to the profession while the Covid-19 pandemic puts greater strain upon social care.
The mental health advocate is now working “a few mornings a week” assisting the elderly, starting her shifts at 5.30am.
She told Standard Online that she would have felt “useless” if she hadn’t put her training to use during this time and said that the experience has “humbled” her.
“I had the training for it, it gets me out of bed and I’m helping someone,” she said.
“I feel useless if I’m just lying here. Once my social media work is done for the day, I’d be sat here like, ‘What the hell am I doing?’ This sets me up for the day.”
Andersson, who appeared on the ITV dating show in 2016, is proud to challenge any preconceptions of what is expected from a former reality TV contestant, telling Standard Online that she doesn’t “have an image to uphold.”
“Yes I’ve been on TV, but that was four years ago. I don’t have this image to uphold, or this ego," she said.
“I got asked ‘God, I thought your job was promoting?’ Just because I’ve been on TV doesn’t mean I can’t be caring right now, that I can’t be helping.
“My career is me being happy and the truest version of myself. If that means now that I want to get out and help people then I b****y well will.”
Andersson praised the “lovely, hardworking” colleagues she has met over the past few weeks and said that the positivity of the elderly people she works with “makes [her] really appreciate things.”
“I’ve always had this [positive] mindset but it really puts things into perspective,” she said.
“Sometimes we’re the only face that they’re seeing but they’re all really happy and cheerful and that makes me smile.
“It’s humbled me greatly - to be grateful for what I do have, instead of focusing on what can be taken away from us.”
