Growing up in Surrey, independent nurse prescriber Mel Recchia wasn’t always planning on heading into the aesthetics field. Until the age of 15 she attended ballet school, and had hopes of becoming an actress. She recalls, “From a young age my intention was always to go to drama school, but I got advised to do something else beforehand so that I had something to fall back on. I decided to go into beauty therapy, officially qualifying as a beauty therapist in 1981. I ended up working in that industry for 14 years, running my own salon and, after gaining a Certificate in Education, teaching in technical colleges. However, I was always fascinated by cosmetic surgery.”
Because of this, Recchia trained to become a nurse at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in 1997. “After qualifying, I started working there in the burns and plastics unit,” she says.
“I really enjoyed it, but it was a tough sector to be in as you had to be mindful of the psychological aspects of treating a patient as well. I moved to A&E and stayed there for around nine years.”…
