Aimee lands her dream job - as a funeral director

Aimee Poole, 25, was laughed at by career advisors when she told them of her dream job, but she was determined to reach her goal.

Over the years, Aimee, from Newbottle, has struggled to get a foot in the door of the industry.

Three years ago, she turned to the Echo for help and since we featured her story she has taken on various work experience placements as a result.

Now she’s celebrating after gaining employment as a funeral service operative at Walker & Morrell Funeral Directors in Sunderland Street, Houghton.

Aimee said: “Whenever I told career advisors what I wanted to do, they would tell me to come up with a sensible job.

“It’s always something I’ve felt really strongly about.

“It’s a privilege to help people at the hardest time of their lives.”

Aimee’s roles at the North East chain include dressing the deceased and writing the order of service booklets.

Funeral director Martin Morrell said: “We were first introduced to Aimee through another funeral director, we knew she could do order of service booklets, and we built up a relationship that way.

“She’s always been very reliable, so when we opened a branch in Houghton, we offered her a position.”

He added: “It is quite unusual to want to do this job since being a child, it wasn’t something I wanted to be back then, but it’s great to have someone who is so dedicated to the job.

“There is a lot of young women and women of all ages interested in this career but unfortunately, when you first start, a lot of the work is manual.

“So it can be difficult for women to work their way up to the position of funeral director for that reason.”