A single mum who once replied to her emails days after giving birth and asked to go back to work just three weeks later says she is “proud” to be a workaholic.

Lydia Mujuru, 49, didn’t realise she was “obsessed” with work until she felt like something was missing when on maternity leave with her eldest son, Damien, 23.

The career-driven mum was contacting colleagues before she knew it to ask for work to do.

Lydia returned to her job as a personal assistant six weeks post-partum – having help from family and child minders to look after her baby.

After giving birth to her second son, Sean, now 17, she started checking her emails as soon as she was discharged and even called her office to ask if she could come back after three weeks – but was refused.

Lydia says being a workaholic has “paid off” as she has successfully raised her two boys and started her own company.

As a single mum Lydia had the support of her sister Leonah, 36, to look after her two boys while she was at work.

She moved to Birmingham in October 2009 to pursue a career in childcare – joining the NHS as a ward clerk before taking a job in the radiology department and making her way up to a management role.

She studied a degree in healthcare while working six days a week and raising her boys.

In November 2022 Lydia took the plunge to set up her own company.