'We were burnt out from NHS front line work - now we make four times as much as Only Fans models'

A couple who ditched their ambulance jobs to run a joint OnlyFans account after being told their "bums looked good in their uniform" are now raking in four times their wage. Kayley Winterson, 27, and Emily Rose, 29, both experienced burnout from working gruelling 12 to 15 hour shifts on the NHS front line.

Kayley left her job in January 2021 after realising that coffee shop workers were earning more than she was with her £11-an-hour wage. Two months later, she made her first tentative steps into OnlyFans work, sharing racy pictures, MyLondon reports.

In January 2023, her partner of eight years, Emily, joined her as a full-time model. The pair now make four times what they did in the ambulance service running the joint profile together and say they are "a million times happier" posting risque photos online.

Kayley, who started her ambulance service career during the first Covid lockdown, said: "One of the final straws for me is when I was working throughout lockdown and I spoke to people that would earn more than me working at a coffee shop.

"I was on £11-an-hour driving around during the height of the pandemic, going through really traumatic experiences and getting nothing back. In a way I think I manifested this happening for us.

"Everyone used to say I had a good bum in my uniform so I'd joke and say that if for any reason this went tits up I would do an OnlyFans. No one ever believed me as I wasn't that type of girl, but here I am."

She continued: "Working in the ambulance service was terrible for our mental health. It's a minimum 12-hour shift most of the time and it was so busy. Sometimes I'd be assigned a call at the start of my shift at 6am, but then by the end of my shift at 6pm I still hadn't gotten round to going.

"I ended up feeling so bad thinking about leaving someone there so I'd just go anyway, but then a 12-hour shift turned into a 15-hour shift. It was emotionally and physically draining."

Speaking about the toll their jobs took on their relationship, Emily said: "I started a 12-week training course [in the ambulance service] in spring 2020 then was on the road with Kayley by the second wave later that year.

"The job is so intense that even though we lived together, we would sometimes go six days without spending any time together. We tried to pick up shifts together but that was very rare."

Kayley started working at a Covid testing centre after leaving the ambulance service, but soon realised she could earn more from flogging lewd snaps online in 20 minutes than a whole day shift.

Emily stayed with the ambulance service until early 2023, when she decided to leave due to ongoing mental health struggles and a distressing work incident. She teamed up with her lover to work on their joint OnlyFans endeavour.

After leaving the ambulance service, Kayley took up a role at a Covid testing centre. She quickly discovered she could earn more from OnlyFans in the first 20 minutes of her shift than she would all day at the testing centre.

She said: "There were times when I was going out on a long night shift and I'd get videos from Kayley in the bath at home eating chocolate strawberries and pouring champagne over herself.

"I'd had some pretty traumatic experiences at work. The job started to destroy my mental health and my perception of the world. I felt like I was dedicating my life to something and getting absolutely nothing back.

"I wanted to spend more time with Kayley. I wanted to spend Christmases with her and actually be able to have a somewhat normal life. Things took a turn for the worst and I was having anxiety breakdowns. I just couldn't face the possibility of going to work anymore, so I left and joined Kayley."

The couple, who are loving life raking in the cash, say their content is "what [they] were doing before anyway" but just adding a camera and "good lighting". Both say their mental health is in a much better state than when they were working on the front line.

Kayley said: "We're bringing in more than I could have ever imagined whilst working in the NHS. People are generally very supportive. Everyone we've spoken to understands that we weren't happy before and this enables us to be happy and spend time together.

"I will say though, Only Fans is still hard work - it's not a get rich quick scheme. People don't realise that it's mostly understanding the market, promoting yourself and asking yourself what is going to make people watch me, rather than free porn. We take pride in our work in the same way we took pride in our work whilst working in the NHS.

"Our mental health is 100 times better. We almost don't live in reality anymore. We get up when we want, sleep when we want and barely know what day of the week it is. I think the NHS work culture is only going to get worse in the next couple of years. Staff are being paid the bare minimum and are being grinded down to a pulp.

"But because everyone who works in the NHS is so good natured, you feel awful if you don't do it because you know there are people out there suffering if you don't. At the end of the day, there has to be a point where enough is enough. We're glad we made the switch, have never looked back and are excited to see where we can go from here."

Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond. Sign up to our daily newsletter.