Long-time friends and new business partners Trishna Patel and Shelly Verma fulfilled their mutual goal to be the caring pair of hands for other people’s loved ones in the place of absent family by opening a Caremark home care business in Abbey Road, Brent.

The departure of both women from successful careers, Trishna whose career spanned retail, data analytics and as a Tender specialist with a medical products company and Shelly as an electronics engineer, was the 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.

This led them to think about what was important to them professionally and personally and a home care business was the clear answer to fulfilling both criteria.

Shelly reflected: “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, the pandemic making visits home more difficult.

Then in 2021 Trishna’s father became seriously ill.

Unable to get home quickly because of her own circumstances, she felt the pain of not being there.

Trishna reflected: “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.”

Shelly 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.”