Determined Emma defies illness to achieve success

That University of Teesside student Emma Jobson has achieved so much at such a young age is notable. That she has defied serious illness to do so makes her nothing short of remarkable.

Despite suffering from debilitating ME, Emma has won a national competition, landed a new job, rubbed shoulders with celebrities and continued to study on a Business course at the University.

Emma, 20, from Norton, Stockton-on-Tees, is in the second year of her BA (Hons) Retail and Marketing Management degree. Last summer, she entered a competition run by the King of Shaves company for its Hed line of hair products, such as gel and wax, for men aged 16-24. She beat 5,000 other competitors with her idea of placing information about the brand on council leaflets used in Sunderland leisure centres.

Emma said: “I knew everyone else in the competition would aim at young people in pubs and clubs so I tried something different. I work on the reception at two Stockton leisure centres and knew that a lot of young people visited them. It seemed a good place to market Hed. The company says it has seen an upturn in sales thanks to the idea.”

She also applied last summer for a marketing job with University of Teesside-based company Co-efficient and Outsourcing Solutions. She has just heard that she has been taken on for a day a week, raising the profile of its work in helping small businesses tackle accountancy and administration problems.

Emma said: “When I wrote my letters for the job and the competition, I had just been diagnosed with ME and tired a lot of the time. I was sleeping sixteen hours a day and did not even have the energy to get out of bed.

“But I decided it was a case of mind over matter. It was important to me that I could still do the kind of things I used to do. I had lost all my confidence and I was scared to go out but my successes gave me my confidence back. I still get tired but am getting better. Without those successes, I think I would have slipped into a deep depression.”

An unexpected bonus was an invite to a celebrity party in London hotel during her trip to see Hed representatives.

Emma said: “At one time I thought I was so ill I thought I would never be able to get to London. But there I was in the same room as the likes of Elton John, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, Sienna Miller and Kelly Brook!”

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