Entrepreneur and Philanthropist. Patron of the Helen McArdle Nursing Scholarship. Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration award holder (2022)
Helen McArdle’s whole life has been dedicated to making a difference in the care sector with her ethos being to provide care of the highest quality with a family-led approach. In 2015 she was awarded a CBE for her services to the care home industry and the local community.
Helen has encouraged the enrollment of students by providing financial assistance to five student nurses each year through her scholarship programme. In recognition of her sponsorship of the University, 2019 saw the state-of-the-art Helen McArdle House become the University’s Nursing and Care Research Institute. Helen was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration by the University in 2022.
Listen to Helen’s story:
Read the transcript from Helen’s interview:
Creating a business.
“My parents had a grocer’s shop and before I could hardly see over the counter, I used to be happy in the business. I loved that, I was a natural entrepreneur. But anyway, I left school and married early, had four children myself and I was always looking for opportunities for some sort of business. My husband had a very successful garage, but I knew that long term that was going to be difficult for us because it was very dependent upon him and it was very hard work, six days a week. By accident, we came along a pub which we bought and renovated and put someone into it and it was never a long-term plan. After about nine months, someone came and offered us quite a lot of money for it. So, we had to do something with this money. And by chance at that time the government were giving out loans. And I saw this old vicarage, and I said to my husband, ‘Look, come on, let’s have a look at this vicarage- we could maybe convert it’. And at the time, I think my very best friend and my accountant had mentioned about care homes, and they were just starting up- they were more ‘Mama and Papa’ things, really.
We bought the vicarage, sold our house, sold the car, sold everything. Same as we did with the pub, we sold everything to buy that pub. But we sold everything again to buy this care home. And my husband worked on the care home with some of our friends and that’s how we started. And I suppose care to me just came naturally because, you know, I was eldest of four girls as I said, and I was very much the Irish mother, I think, and I loved it. And it was about the fun side as well, and it was just an extension of my family, so that’s how we got into that”.
Connection to the University.
“It started when I was invited to a dinner at Sunderland University and I met the Vice Chancellor, then Shirley Atkinson, a lovely lady, and we got talking about the University and the students and she told me about the hardship that many students had, that a lot of the students had come from poorer backgrounds- not many, if any of the family had ever gone to university, and quite a few of them were having to go through jobs to go through their degree. And the other thing, they didn’t have the social side of the University. And I thought of my grandchildren and all the fun times they’ve had at university, and it really stuck with me. I’ve always been a hard worker myself and I love hard work and I appreciate the hard work that these students are putting in to get their degree”.
On hearing student success stories.
“Specific students- I know that one student has come through as a Ph.D. and a couple of other students have won the Helen McArdle Care Awards and sometimes with my friends, because we’ve given a bursary to some of our carers, we hear how they’re doing and how they’re really enjoying it, and liking it, and often even if I’m in the hospital locally or anything, I hear about students and they talk about Sunderland University and the Helen McArdle Care Facility.
Philanthropy.
It’s not that you want something back from giving, but you want joy from giving. You want to be able to see the impact that it has. And with Sunderland there’s no doubt everything they do, they’re outstanding.
