Former Royal Ballet Company dancer draws on personal experience to help staff and volunteers at Ashgate Hospicecare

Ruth Bailey is Ashgate Hospicecare's staff and volunteer wellbeing advisor (photo: EKR PIctures/Ellie Rhodes).

Ruth Bailey, 32, travelled the world with the ballet company and performed alongside acclaimed dancers including Darcey Bussell.

Diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, Ruth retired as a professional dancer at the age of 24 to focus on her wellbeing and is now ten years into recovery.

Ruth is now using her past experiences to implement a robust support scheme for everyone at Ashgate Hospicecare in her role as the charity’s staff and volunteer wellbeing advisor.

Ruth Bailey was a professional dancer with the Royal Ballet Company when she retired at 24 to focus on her wellbeing after being diagnosed with anorexia nervosa.

She said: “My own struggles with wellbeing and the barriers I faced when accessing support has been the driving force behind my studies at university, which focused on nutrition, health and lifestyles.

“I knew that I wanted to support other people to improve their health and let people know that healthy wellbeing takes work every single day.

“I believe that I am now a role model for this, which I absolutely love!”

Since her appointment in August last year, Ruth has offered 1:1 wellbeing calls, group meetings on nutrition and exercise and 30-minute mindfulness sessions.

Ruth, who lives in Sheffield, said: “Since the start of the pandemic, we have seen how people have been impacted by the changes to our work and home lives. At Ashgate, we are taking a proactive approach to addressing these issues to ensure we have a well-supported and resilient workforce.

“My ambition is to help make wellbeing a priority for everyone. It can be difficult to give yourself permission to allow time for yourself, however, I believe it’s the key to long term sustainability.

“I hope to build and promote a really strong message that wellbeing should be paramount to healthy staff and volunteers. Human beings have basic needs and I hope to give time, energy, and a safe space for people to acknowledge these in the workplace.”

Matt Corbishley, director of people and performance at Ashgate Hospice, said: “Supporting our staff and volunteers to stay healthy and well is a key priority for Ashgate. A healthy workplace helps our teams to deliver the very best end of life and palliative care to families across north Derbyshire.”