RAG ‘N’ Bone Man has revealed the very normal career he had before finding fame.
The singer, 39 – real name Rory Graham – recently appeared on Jamie Laing‘s Great Company podcast.
During the interview with former Strictly Come Dancing star Jamie, 35, he revealed the surprising former job choice and insisted he loved working as a carer.
The Giant hitmaker said: “I remember 2013/14, when I’d just got a publishing deal, I was still doing care work because I was like, ‘I don’t know whether this is gonna kick off or not’.
“I remember thinking to myself. ‘if this doesn’t get to that point, then I’m still quite happy doing this and doing the pub gigs and stuff on the side’ because that’s kind of where I was at at the time.”
Rag ‘N’ Bone man has spoken in the past about his older sister who has Down Syndrome and added to Jamie that it was his exprience of the condition that helped him to love his former job.
He said: “I ended up looking after some friends of my mum’s who had a son and daughter who were both Down syndrome, and they didn’t have a carer at the time.
“I think they’d been through having different carers and and it didn’t really work out. They just approached me and said ‘have you ever thought about doing this?’ because they knew Lucy was my sister. They knew each other.”
He continued: “I started working for the parents, looking after their two children. And then from there I looked after another lad who had Asperger’s syndrome and another guy who had Down syndrome, who was a bit older.
I had different people that I was looking after on different days of the week .And it was just a really fun job. Super, super fun but challenging at times.”
Rag ‘N’ Bone man previously revealed the unsual place he proposed to girlfriend Zoe Beardsall.
He said: “We got engaged on the plane, on the way to Nashville.”
Zoe added: “He was going to do it when we got there but his anxiety was getting the better of him and he didn’t want to ruin the holiday.
“He was p*ssing about with the divider between our seats and he put it down and was just sitting there with a box.”
OUR resident specialist and NHS GP, Dr Zoe Williams, shares her expert advice.
Today, Dr Zoe helps a reader going through the perimenopause.
Q: IS it possible to have many of the same symptoms I had in puberty now I am perimenopausal?
A: Absolutely, it’s very common to experience similar issues to what you went through as a teenager.
Both stages involve significant hormonal shifts, which can cause mood swings, acne, breast tenderness and weight changes.
During perimenopause, fluctuating oestrogen and progesterone levels can affect not only your menstrual cycle but also your emotional and physical well-being, much like they did during puberty.
Your body is adjusting to a new phase.
If the symptoms become troubling, please do not suffer in silence.
There are many ways in which to manage and ease the transition into menopause, so contact your GP to explore your options.
They will likely advise lifestyle modifications, for example reducing caffeine, alcohol and ultra-processed foods, and increasing exercise, sleep and healthy foods.
You may find some adjustments like these are enough to keep your symptoms at bay.
You don’t say what symptoms you have, but women experiencing hot flushes, night sweats and vaginal dryness often find HRT is helpful.
Try out the 20-20-20 rule to reduce eye strain from looking at the same thing all day, whether that be a laptop screen, TV or book!
Every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
A HUGE rise in civil service penpushers has become a burden on the NHS, a landmark review has reported.
Top surgeon Lord Ara Darzi found that since 2008 there has been a rise of 5,000 staff in health department quangos to 7,000.
Meanwhile, the ratio of office staff in Whitehall and NHS England doubled from 53 at each local NHS trust in 2013 to 109 in 2022.
Lord Darzi slammed 2012’s reforms of health management.
Good NHS bosses were driven out and hiring sprees at the Department of Health left it top-heavy, he said.
Ex-Health Secretary Steve Barclay imposed a hiring freeze last year but numbers are up over the long term.
Lord Darzi said: “The number of staff in regulatory roles has gone from five per NHS provider to more than 35.
“Too many people holding people to account, and not doing the job, can be counterproductive.”
The report listed 18 bodies that control the NHS but do not treat patients, including regulator Nice, legal arm NHS Resolution and inspectors the Care Quality Commission.
Sir Julian Hartley, of NHS Providers, said: “NHS trust bosses know regulation is important but it must add value for patients and improve care.”