Sarah Kowalyszyn
All About Sarah
GIRL ABOUT MANCHESTER
Hey, I’m Sarah!
I was born and bred in Manchester where I’ve lived for 33 years! I grew up in North Manchester but I now live in Urmston in South Manchester, with my silly husband Kov and our kids Archie who’s 4 and our rainbow baby Evie who’ll be 1 in September. And our cat, who doesn’t know she’s a cat.
I’m currently on maternity leave from my part-time job as an NHS gynaecology nurse, and I love my work – I’m passionate about women’s health and I love making people feel better. I work in Manchester city centre so I’m always buzzing around the city!
When I’m not nursing, I’m usually busy with the kids or checking out places to go on Instagram. We hate staying in so we’re normally out and about going for walks, visiting parks and play centres, looking at animals or doing our favourite thing – EATING! We’re a family who love to eat. Kov loves to cook and we love going out for meals. I’m half Filipino while Kov is a mix of Ukrainian and Italian, so we like a bit of everything!
I love music and I’ll choose it over TV most of the time. I also absolutely love to dance and will stay on a dance floor all night if I can.
I’m known for a bit of dark sense of humour (as are most nurses). I can’t take myself seriously and I’m always laughing, but also very open. I recently suffered 3 miscarriages and have battled with anxiety for years, and share my experiences a lot to help others.
10 Facts About Me:
1. Before I was a nurse I’d spent my whole life planning to be an artist! I studied art and design at college and almost completed a graphic design diploma at university. I dropped out because I wanted to be a nurse instead
2. I went tandem paragliding about 10 years ago in Turkey. We started off at about 1960 metres high and it was amazing
3. My children are a mixture of a few different heritages. My mum is from the Philippines, my dad is half English and half Irish, Kov’s dad is Ukrainian and his mum is half Ukrainian and half Italian!
4. I spent 6 weeks travelling around Sri Lanka as part of my final year of nurse training. It was a massive eye opener to how incredibly fortunate we are to have the NHS and I will forever love that island
5. We got married in 2015 and didn’t have much money, so we and our friends did all of our wedding decorations ourselves. We made all of our bunting by hand, arranged all our own flowers and bouquets, collected all our own jars and jugs for the flowers and candles, and our artist friends painted, made and wrote the rest of the décor. It was beautiful.
6. We got engaged on Christmas day. Kov hid inside a giant box that he’d wrapped as a Christmas present, and when I lifted the box up he was in a suit and down on one knee, holding my engagement ring!
7. I have 5 tattoos. I got my first one in Sri Lanka
8. I have a condition called pectus excavatum, where my sternum has sunken in to my chest. It causes me chest pain and shortness of breath which is highly annoying
9. I have TERRIBLE eyesight! Without my glasses or contact lenses I can just see over 2 inches away and then the world is a massive blur
10. I’ve had lots of different jobs. I’ve served food at a football stadium, waitressed, worked at a Gregg’s bakery, been an Ann Summers party hostess, a shop assistant in Mothercare and nursed on an intestinal failure ward