UnLTD’s Ash Birch grabs a bite with Cavendish Cancer Care’s new marketing manager Laura Ross at V|OR|V’s new all veggie and vegan Grill House in Orchard Square food hall Sheffield Plate.
Hi Laura. Can you start by telling us a little bit about your new role?
I actually only started three weeks ago and it’s a new role at Cavendish. It takes in traditional marketing, so working with journalists, print, newsletters, magazines, but also improving on all the digital side of things such as the website and social media. It’s kind of a whole marketing role.
Previously, Cavendish have had people doing bits of marketing, but they’ve never condensed it in to one role. As a charity, they’ve been going quite a long time, starting in the 1970s and it’s quite interesting because when it started, it was really quite revolutionary.
Cavendish provides complementary therapies and counselling to people going through cancer treatment. That’s not necessarily just the patient. It might be their family, children or anyone associated with them.
It’s not instead of medical treatment, it’s as well as. It’s all free of charge for anyone who uses the service and the management are very keen that there never will be any situation where people have to pay, so all of our money is pretty much raised through fundraising and a small amount, about 4 per cent, comes from the NHS.
It’s quite unique in that it’s got a defined offer. From a marketing point of view, that’s quite handy because we’ve got a USP. There’s a massive job to do, in terms of improving people’s awareness of Cavendish, which in turn helps with fundraising, but also helps people access the service.
How does a typical working day look for you right now?
I’m quite new, so I’m still learning quite a lot of things. But it might involve things like meeting medical students who’ve been doing a placement at Cavendish, to see how we can use their input for things like our newsletter that go out to specialist care nurses. I also work with journalists, update the website, put things out on social media, as well as provide support for a lady who is doing corporate wellness packages. It’s quite varied and there’s a lot to get stuck into working part-time, across a 24-hour week.
What are you enjoying about the role so far?
I’m especially enjoying the writing side of things, and I’ve actually written an article this morning which will feature in unLTD; I’m also enjoying the events, so I helped out at the half marathon, which we were one of the key charities for. I’ve been doing a little bit with Radio Sheffield, and then just getting to have chats with everybody. So far, it’s been really nice and it’s going to be a very interesting role, and one that I could potentially develop over the next few years.
You mentioned this is a new role, so what were you doing before you moved to Cavendish?
So, I’ve actually come back to work after eight years looking after my children. Way back before my career break, I did a PR degree at Leeds Met, which at the time was quite unusual, but I think it’s more common now.
I don’t know why I decided to get into PR. I think I probably watched too many episodes of Sex in the City as a teenage girl and thought, ‘Wow – that looks glamorous. I’ll do that.’ I ended up working at Sheffield City Council. Not quite so glamorous!
After I graduated, I had quite a lot of jobs in my 20s, mostly working in comms, eventually working for the National Trust in a comms manager role, which was a great job but was only a maternity contract. I ended up at a foster care agency, in a kind of comms, marketing and business development type role, and I was there for five years, during which I had my own maternity leave with my eldest son, who’s now 10.
I went back to that job when he was one, but it was quite stressful and quite a lot of travelling. Meanwhile, my husband had started his own business whilst I was on maternity leave, which luckily had become quite successful fairly quickly. He was really busy and so I think at that point, we were like, what are our priorities? I always think for one of you, and it doesn’t have to be the mum, something has to give when you’ve got young children.
Unless you’ve got a lot of money to have a nanny or you’ve got a lot of grandparent help, I think you’ve got to compromise. So, I quit my job and started doing a bit of freelance. We then had our second baby.
For some reason, over Christmas last year I got into my head that maybe I should get a job. I had a look to see what was available in part time marketing roles, and I was quite specific, because having children at school in Sheffield, I didn’t want to be driving to Leeds because you know what it’s like, you send them off to school and you get a phone call half an hour later saying they’ve fallen off a climbing frame, or they’ve forgotten their packed lunch, so I wanted to be local.
I saw this job and put an application in on the very last day, because I was still a bit undecided – it’s a big change. I wasn’t expecting to hear anything back, but they rang two hours later and asked me to come to an interview the following week. I hadn’t had an interview since 2008, so I wasn’t expecting it to go well. One of my friends in HR was saying to use it as experience, but I only went and got it! It was a bit of a surprise, I have to say.
How has the adjustment back into the world of work been?
Everyone at Cavendish has been lovely. It’s a really nice place to work and its very family friendly. The first few days were a bit of a shock because it’s getting used to being in a place for a certain time, things like logging into a system for holiday requests, finding out where everything is and feeling like the new person all over again.
They don’t judge me for going at 2pm for the school run, but I kind of still feel like I’m disappointing people, because I’ve never had to do it in a job before. I’ve always been the person that would stay until 7pm if I needed to get something finished. I can’t do that now.
It’s a lot to balance and before you’re in that position, I don’t think you can appreciate it. I think if you are going back to work after a career break, it can absolutely be done. It was so much easier than I thought. And I think employers now are much more willing to accept gaps on your CV because, actually, you’ve probably done stuff in that time which has been useful. So far, it’s been a really positive experience.
Guilt-Free Grilling
For the initiated, V|OR|V need no introduction! For our money, their Kelham Island venue is the best veggie and vegan restaurant in the city, so it’s safe to say that we were hugely excited when news broke of their latest project – a veggie and vegan Grill House in city-centre food hall, Sheffield Plate.
Specialising in celeriac doner and oyster mushroom shish kebabs, their new spot is the perfect place for a quick, Turkish influenced lunchtime bite, and one drizzly Thursday in March, I met up with Cavendish’s Laura Ross for just that.
I arrive slightly early, so I’m given the chance to peruse the menu in a bit more detail and order myself a Punchy sparkling blood orange soda. As the menu suggests, the kebabs are the main event here, but I’m intrigued by their small plate offering and inquire how many of the small plates would be enough for a decent lunch.
I’m told by the incredibly helpful staff that three or four of the plates to share would be more than enough. I relay this to Laura who is happy to Lady and the Tramp a few dishes with me.
In need of more recommendations, I head to the counter where I’m advised to opt for the confit garlic lebnah, from their big dippers section, along with the smashed Yorkshire jester potatoes, grilled purple broccoli, Korean fried kohlrabi and crispy seasonal squash all of which can be found on their seasonal small plates menu.
The first thing to say is, this was lot of food! We probably could have gone a dish less, but as it’s all so delicious, we do a sterling job of ploughing through the majority on offer, grazing away while we chat.
My favourite amongst a stellar line-up was the kohlrabi; tasty little mouthfuls of battered cauliflower, with a hint of spice from the sauce. I could eat a bucket of them!
If you’re already a fan of V|OR|V you’re going to love this new space, and if you haven’t tried the full restaurant experience yet, then this is the perfect taster. And what’s more, if you’re sad that your vegan kebab delivery options have been limited with the closing of Donner Summer, V|OR|V’s kebabs (and the rest of the menu) are available on Deliveroo.
