By Your Side

Sarah Parkins is the Director and Owner of By Your Side, with over a decade of experience in the health and social care sector. She holds a Level 5 Diploma in Health and Social Care Management and is a certified Dementia Care Specialist. Her extensive qualifications and hands-on expertise ensure that every customer receives personalised, high-quality care tailored to their unique needs.

As a passionate advocate for person-centred care, Sarah leads the team with a focus on delivering compassionate and reliable support, particularly for those living with dementia. Her dedication to maintaining the highest standards of care extends to mentoring her team and fostering strong relationships with customers and their families.

Under Sarah’s leadership, By Your Side has become a trusted provider of bespoke care services, earning the highest accolade of Outstanding from the CQC on their last inspection.

In addition to her role at By Your Side, Sarah is the founder of The Pad Project UK, a charity supporting local communities living in pad poverty. She also serves as the CEO of the Sarah Parkins Academy, which provides training, documentation, and mentoring to carers and companies in the care sector.

Cristina Todosi is a dedicated professional currently serving as Deputy Manager at By Your Side. In 2025 it is planned that Cristina will take over as Registered Manager at By Your Side. With a strong foundation in the care industry since 2016, she has played a key role in enhancing healthcare services and supporting her team. Cristina holds a Master of Business Administration in Healthcare Level 7 and is currently furthering her expertise by completing her NVQ Level 5.

Outside of her professional pursuits, Cristina enjoys immersing herself in the world of literature, exploring new destinations through travel, and attending concerts that ignite her love for music. With a balance of ambition and creativity, she embraces life’s adventures both personally and professionally.

Maggie De Jong is a Supervisor/Care Coordinator, who has been with By Your Side for 5 years.

Maggie has 25 years of experience in the care industry and has a level 3 NVQ.
She has been the By Your Side Medication trainer for 4 years and will be expanding her role to include a Moving and Assisting trainer.

Maggie enjoys meeting people and is motivated by a desire to make people comfortable, she feels that most things can be made better with a laugh!

Maggie is the proud mother of 2 beautiful daughters and has an amazing Grandson.

Maria Godinho has been working as a care practitioner for 7 years; she loves her job, which brings out the best qualities in her. Maria takes her job seriously & goes beyond helping others ( service users) as well as her friends & family.

She has completed her Level 3 in adult & social care diploma & is waiting for her certificate from Aim Group College. Maria is a grandmother of 7 grandchildren. Four boys & three girls. She has five children, four boys & 1 girl.

Maria is a caring, & considerate person who always puts others first. It makes her happy to help others be more independent & always ready to listen to others no matter what.
Maria has worked for two other care companies before joining By Your Side, which she has been working on now for nearly 4 years.

Maria says, "My boss, founder of By Your Side & office staff, works as a strong team. The support I receive is crucial for my ability to care for others. They are my extended family."

Sarah Heron has been a care practitioner at By You Side for nearly 3 years, she holds a Level 3 GNVQ in Health and Social Care and is a qualified first aid trainer. Her qualifications and demeanour ensure that every customer receives personalised, high-quality care tailored to their unique needs.

Sarah is an empathetic carer, who started off caring for family members, before venturing out and working for By Your Side. Although she hasn't been in care long, her 'out the box' thinking and care to ensure the customers feel valued, loved and appreciated. She fully believes in customer-centred care and empowering customers to make informed decisions.

Sarah has recently started training people in first aid and is venturing out into training manual handling soon too, alongside her care work. Sarah is only at the beginning of her career, and the sky is the limit!

My name is Chelsea Doran I am 32 years old with 12 years of experience in care. I am a dedicated carer I am very passionate about my job, and my heart has always led me to care. I love bringing care into the world. People require different needs in different ways. Everybody is unique in their own way; I interact with people well, I always know how to put a smile on somebody’s face, and I like to make a good impact on someone’s opinion of me as a person.

Chloe Bennett has been with BYS for just over a year, she was new to Care work and took on some evenings and weekends around her family, horses, dogs, running and cycling.

Her main role is in administration, which is rather stressful, so she wanted to take on a more fulfilling role. She prides herself on being reliable and honest. She loves being with BYS and recently has taken on some early morning calls before her day job, it has become more of a social area in her busy life.

She is always willing to try new things and will go above and beyond. A keen problem solver, who enjoys discussing her ideas with others. She is very organised at home and at work, so she is never without a spreadsheet.

Wendy Findlay has been in care for 44 years, starting with social services and then other agencies over the years. She has worked very closely with individuals with learning disabilities, dementia clients, and both children and families.

She worked as a senior carer /home care manager and is now a carer on her journey in care, which she loves very much.

She has my NVQ level 3.

My name is Ruth Alaofin, a dedicated care worker for over a year, a bank staff as a care advocate at By Your Side.

I am independent, focused and able to convey empathy for each service user's pressing concern and have a sincere respect for service users' dignity.

I am reliable, and always willing to support my team when needed as my calm demeanour, excellent communication skills, and positive attitude make me to be valued also an asset.