The Sunday Times February 6, 2022 21NEWS REVIEW
My cabin crew career crash-landed
Airlines are frantically recruiting, but the glamour of the job packed its bags long ago, says one former ‘trolley dolly’
C
an we finally think
about booking a foreign
holiday without fear of
a last-minute Covid
cancellation? The travel
industry certainly hopes so.
British Airways is restarting
its engines, trying to recruit
4,000 personnel to replace
some of those
unceremoniously dumped
during the pandemic.
But if you’re thinking of
signing up for a life of
glamour in the skies, think
carefully. I should know. I
used to be an air stewardess.
Then, just six months later, I
wasn’t.
I was 26 and after
graduating I had jobs at
pharmaceutical companies.
Most of my days were spent
staring at a screen. Then in
2017, up popped a Facebook
advertisement: smiling faces
in brightly coloured uniforms
telling me that a major airline
(not BA) was looking for
“sociable and responsible”
new employees. They
emphasised the flexible
hours and the ability to
choose your own schedule. It
seemed meant to be.
I stood out the moment I
walked in for my interview.
The other women — and it
was mainly women — looked
the part in high heels, pencil
skirts and heavy make-up. Ihad decided to wear dark
jeans and flat black boots.
Asked whether she had any
hobbies, one girl said:
“Collecting designer
handbags.” My answer
(playing tennis and piano)
seemed to go down a bit
better.
I got the job! Then came
four weeks of intense
training. Most people will
look at an air stewardess and
see a glammed-up waitress,
but there’s much more to it
than that.Endless safety
protocols were hammered
into us. A quickfire round of
safety questions was routine
before boarding a flight. A
wrong answer meant being
left on the tarmac.
Part of the training took
place in a container built to
look like a plane with
hydraulics to mimic different
weather conditions. We
practised putting out fires,
emergency landings,
evacuations and dealing with
hijackings. Actors took on the
role of aggressive passengers,
shouting in our faces about
not putting their mother’s
ashes into the locker. It all
became too much for one
trainee, who came from
another big airline and was
clearly reliving some bad
memories.
After a uniform fitting and A Pan-Am flight in 1958, and the airline’s 1960s uniformthe ceiling then onto
the floor. Thankfully nothing
was hurt, apart from
my pride.
The worst experience I had
was on a European flight
where the pilots told us to
prepare for an emergency
landing as they weren’t sure if
they would make it onto the
runway. I remember thinking
that I really didn’t fancy dying
three months into the job.
Then, of course, there are
the passengers. Pleases and
thank-yous are rare; even eye
contact is not that common.
Plenty of male
passengers loved the
uniform. Once, while I
was performing safety
checks, a man lifted his
jacket from his lap to show
his fastened seat belt — and a
bulge in his trousers.
Some of my colleagues
had men tugging on
their skirts.
I started
struggling. Sleep
deprivation took its toll. I
missed having colleagues I
could see every day. When it
got to the point where I’d
start crying simply thinking
about putting on my uniform,
I knew I had to call it a day.
Goodness knows how the
past two years of masked-up,
pandemic flying have been.
As told to Leonie RoderickYou could have three flights in
one day — six landings and
take-offs. On long-haul flights,
at least you can try to get a
few hours’ sleep, although it’s
hard in a narrow bed in the
space above the cabin. The
purser would wake me up
and give me five minutes to
get back to the aisles. Mints,
perfume, hair brush and
away...
Once, flying
to Kuala
Lumpur, the
plane hit an
air pocket,
sending me
flying intothat I really
three mont
Then, of
the passeng
thank-yous
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Some
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start crying
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Goodness k
past two ye
pandemic f
AstoldtoLe, flying
a
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toN
ight sweats, hot
flushes, insomnia,
discomfort and mood
swings: the misery of
the menopause is
something most women
either dread, try to forget, or
battle through with gritted
teeth. According to
specialists, 80 per cent of
women will have symptoms,
yet only 8 per cent will
receive treatment. In the
past, women have had to beg
their (often male) GPs for
hormone-based therapies
such as HRT to alleviate their
symptoms. But soon they
may be able to cut out the
middleman.
For the first time, an
oestrogen treatment called
Gina 10 may be sold over the
counter. An advisory
committee has told the
government regulator, the
Medicines and Healthcare
Products Regulatory Agency
(MHRA), that it can be
“reclassified” from a
prescription-only medicine to
one that your pharmacist can
dole out after a short
consultation.
This is a revolution for
some women. But what about
other patients and other
drugs? Does this signal a
move away from waiting
weeks for a GP appointment
to discuss routine ailments —
and could we find ourselves
popping into the pharmacy in
our lunch break and walking
out with armfuls of the pills
we’ve decided we need?
The UK has a long history
of reclassifying medicines.
According to the MHRA, 81
drugs have switched from
prescription-only to over-the-
counter since 1990. We are
seen as leaders in the field of
reclassification, with the UK
the first country in the world
to make statins — blood-
pressure drugs — and the
morning-after contraception
pill available off prescription.
Most of the 81 medicines
target everyday
inconveniences: drops,
sprays, creams and pills to
treat hay fever, heartburn,
nausea, conjunctivitis,
migraine and back pain. Last
year, two versions of the
contraceptive pill became
available over the counter,
and in 2018 the first “little
blue pill” — the erectile
dysfunction treatment Viagra
— was made available off-
prescription. It costs around
£19.99 for four tablets, while
it is £9.35 on prescription.
“It saves huge numbers of
appointments for GPs, and
patients see healthcare
professionals quicker than
waiting for a GP
appointment,” says Paul
Brett, 40, the co-owner of the
independent Monkbar
Pharmacy in York. “A lot of
them are pleasantly surprised
when they find that actually
they don’t need to see a
doctor, and they can get the
treatment they need over the
counter that day.”
When the MHRA reviews a
drug for reclassification, the
most important question it
asks is whether the medicine
can be safely taken without
the supervision of a doctor.
“There is very careful
consideration of the risks and
benefits,” says Dr Azeem
Majeed, a GP and professor of
primary care and public
health at Imperial
College London. In
some cases, the
MHRA has a 21-
day
consultation
in whichthe public can raise worries
or express their support. Gina
10, owned by the Danish drug
company Novo Nordisk, is
still under consultation.
Some have already voiced
their concerns. The Royal
College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists has said that
while it supports better
access to HRT, women still
need to feel they can see their
doctors, as menopause
treatments aren’t one-size-
fits-all.
Louise Newson, a GP and
HRT campaigner, says that
treating symptoms over the
counter can mean wider
problems are missed, which
was a concern with Viagra. “If
I’ve got erectile problems, it
could be a marker of heart
disease or diabetes,” she says,
“so what I wouldn’t want to
do is just buy Viagra and no
one do any screening tests.”
On occasion, the MHRA
considers making drugs more
difficult to get. It keeps under
review over-the-counter
painkillers containing
codeine: an opiate that can be
highly addictive and which,
in a stronger form, is driving a
lethal epidemic in America.
In 2018 Australia withdrew
over-the-counter access to
products containing codeine,
such as co-codamol and
Nurofen Plus.
Money is a factor, of
course. The NHS can make
huge savings if the cost of
drugs is pushed onto the
patient. In 2018 the NHS
revealed that it was spending
£136 million a year
prescribing drugs such as
paracetamol that are readily
available over the counter.
And going over the counter
means access to a much
larger market. In the three
months after Viagra went
off-prescription, Pfizer sold
860,000 tablets in the UK,
with consumers spending
about £4.3 million.
“In the past five to ten
years, there’s been a push to
get pharmacists more heavilyinvolved in actual healthcare
— giving advice on how to
take medicines and medical
problems, not just giving out
pills,” says Majeed. It is easy
to forget that pharmacists are
highly qualified medical
professionals who take a five-
year master’s degree course.
They are often better versed
in the possible side-effects
and interactions of
combinations of drugs than
is a GP.
In 2019, the NHS
announced it would employ
thousands more pharmacists
to work alongside GPs,
providing support for minor
illnesses. At the moment
there are about 70,000
pharmacists working in
England, and many were
given permission to provide
Covid-19 vaccines.
Brett, who has been a
pharmacist for 15 years,
says the past 12 months
have seen a seismic
change. With GP services
overwhelmed after the
pandemic, they’ve seen
higher numbers of people
coming to the pharmacy
seeking help. “Without a
doubt, the role of community
pharmacy is changing,” he
says.Making
patients
pay saves the
NHS millionsThe push for
more pills —
no doctor’s
note needed
Patients can now pick up a menopause
drug without a prescription. It’s part
of Britain’s growing over-the-counter
culture, says Madeleine Spence212full medical check I was
deemed fit to fly. I was
abiding by strict rules: no
loose hair, no piercings, no
visible tattoos, no crazy nail
polish — and don’t even think
about drinking in your
uniform or smoking a
cigarette.
While my salary wasn’t
great — about £21,000 — I was
put up in fancy hotels and did
manage to squeeze in the odd
bit of sightseeing.
Colleagues were a mixed
bag. You fly with new people
every week, making it
difficult to develop
friendships. Some of themore experienced
stewardesses wouldn’t speak
to me or excluded me from
conversations. They were
fiercely protective of the
pilots, as if they were worried
the younger staff would steal
their attention. One colleague
“collected” aircrew, posting
pictures of her wearing their
jackets on her Instagram. The
more stripes, the more senior
they were — and the prouder
she’d be. One time the wife of
a pilot arrived at a hotel to
surprise him, only to find a
woman in his bed.
Flying in Europe is like
working a production line.ond law of thermodynamics.
In English, Swift would take her right-
ful place alongside Wordsworth and
Keats as one of the finest exponents of the
English language to have lived. If we’re
being honest, Love Story improved signifi-
cantly on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
original.
In History, with the importance of the
monarchy in modern life diminishing,
the study of the ages of the royals — Stu-
arts, Georgians, Victorians and so on —
should naturally be replaced by some-
thing much more relevant: the eight eras
of Swift, from self-titled (2006-08), via
Speak Now (2010-12) all the way through
to Folklore and Evermore (2020-present
day). All human knowledge and emotion
is contained within the music created in
this time. It seems needless to learn about
the six wives of Henry VIII when you
could learn about the nine albums (plus
two re-records and various non-album
tracks of equally high quality) of Taylor
Swift.
Field trips would be added to the
Geography syllabus, taking students to
New York (“It’s been waiting for you”),
London (“I enjoy walking Camden Mar-
ket in the afternoon”) and the Lake Dis-
trict (“Those Windermere peaks look like
a perfect place to cry”). Bring your trun-
dle wheel and try to measure the depth of
love a Swiftie has for Enchanted — it’ll take
you all day.
Business studies will be replaced
entirely by a study of Swift’s career, in
which she has faultlessly controlled her
career path, fought for her own and other
artists’ rights against record labels and
streaming services and maintained a
seemingly neverending line in new
merch and multiple-version vinyl
releases.
She’s even got PE covered: half an
hour of Shake It Off every day and we’d
have a fitter, happier nation in no time.
If America has Biden’s Green New
Deal, then it’s obvious that Britain
needs a Red New Deal, and it needs
it Swiftly.
Michael, just give me a call and
together we’ll turn this country
into the 21st-century economic
and cultural powerhouse it can
be. I’ll stake my Reputation on it.T
he argument will forever rage
about the point of higher edu-
cation. Is it better to pay those
fees, knuckle down for three
or four years and hit the grad-
uate recruitment fairs to get
started on a higher rung of the
corporate ladder, or are you
best served in the University
of Life, getting experience in
the real world and working your way up?
While that debate will never be settled,
one thing we can all agree on is that the
recently launched Taylor Swift course at
New York University’s Clive Davis Insti-
tute is by some distance the most impor-
tant education that anyone could ever
receive. In fact, if Michael Gove is really
serious about levelling up the country, he
could do far worse than introduce man-
datory Swift elements to every aspect of
the curriculum in the UK. And I hereby —
as a die-hard Swiftie of 12 years — volun-
teer to oversee the syllabus.
While the official course takes in such
worthy topics as “[deconstructing] both
the appeal and aversions to Taylor Swift
through close readings of her music and
public discourse” and “analyses of the
culture and politics of teen girlhood in
pop music, fandom, media studies,
whiteness and power as it relates to her
image and the images of those who have
both preceded and succeeded her”, my
modules would be far simpler and much
more effective.
For a start, you can forget the “aver-
sions” aspect. On my new Mathematics
curriculum, straight after 2+2=4 would be
Taylor Swift + a guitar = musical genius. A
new mathematical constant of 1989 (sym-
bol: TS) would be introduced, defined as
the numbers one must type into Spotify
to hear the perfect pop album.
Similarly, Physics would have a
fifth fundamental element of
nature added to gravity, the
weak force, electromagnet-
ism and the strong force: a
wronged Taylor Swift. As
Kanye West (interrupt-
ing her at the Video
Music Awards), Scooter
Braun (allegedly bully-
ing her and then buying
her recordings), Jake
Gyllenhaal (ruining her
21st birthday) and
Damon Albarn (ques-
tioning her songwriting
credentials) have learnt
to their cost, one is
utterly powerless to
resist the momentum of
Taylor with the bit
between her teeth.
In addition, We A re
Never Ever Getting Back
Together provides the per-
fect explanation of the sec-A Taylor Swift university course has been launched, but the whole
curriculum would benefit from a Swiftian revamp, says Dave Fawbert
Ooh, look what
degree you
made me do
She’s even got PE
covered: half an
hour of Shake It
Off every dayond law of thermodynamic
In English, Swift would
ful place alongside Wor
Keats as one of the finest ex
English language to have
being honest, Love Storyy im
cantly on Shakespeare’s Ro
original.
In History, with the imp
monarchy in modern life
the study of the ages of th
arts, Georgians, Victorians
should naturally be repla
thing much more relevant:
of Swift, from self-titled (
Speak Noww(2010-12) all the
toFolklore and Evermoree
day). All human knowledge
is contained within the mu
thistime. It seems needless
the six wives of Henry V
could learn about the nine
twore-recordsand vario
tracks of equally high qua
Swift.
Field trips would be
Geography syllabus, takin
New York (“It’s been wait
London (“I enjoy walking
ket in the afternoon”) and
trict (“Those Windermere p
a perfect place to cry”). Br
dle wheel and try to measu
love a Swiftie has forEncha
you all day.
Business studies will
entirely by a study of Sw
which she has faultlessly c
career path, fought for her
artists’ rights against reco
streaming services and
seemingly neverending
merch and multiple-v
releases.
She’s even got PEcov
hour of Shake It Offevery
have a fitter, happier nat
If America has Biden
Deal, then it’s obviou
needs a Red New Dea
it Swiftly.
Michael, just give
together we’ll turn
into the 21st-cent
and cultural powe
be. I’ll stake my Ren all agree on is that the
d Taylor Swift courseat
rsity’s Clive Davis Insti-
istance the most impor-
hat anyone could ever
if Michael Gove is really
elling up the country,he
rse than introduce man-
ments to every aspect of
n the UK. And I hereby —
iftie of 12 years — volun-
he syllabus.
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“[deconstructing] both
aversions to Taylor Swift
adings of her music and
” and “analyses of the
tics of teen girlhood in
ndom, media studies,
ower as it relates to her
mages of those who have
nd succeeded her”,my
be far simpler and much
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ght after 2+2=4 would be
uitar = musical genius. A
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ct pop album.
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We Are
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s the per-
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PICTORIAL PARADE/ARCHIVE PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES