It is not a job for the faint-hearted or the even mildly squeamish, but it is a genuine case of "someone has to do it". Friends Laura Pearson and Debbie Jardine have specialised in what they call "trauma cleaning" for around a year now.
Operating as Biohazard Solutions, the pair are called in, chiefly by the police or other public authorities, to clean up in the wake of serious incidents, such as murders, domestic assaults, road accidents, suicides, deaths in the home and other episodes of human tragedy.
Laura, 37, said: "Our job is to make sure as far as possible that there is no sign of what has happened when the person, or their family, comes back to their home. So, we clean up. If necessary, we can repaint walls or redo flooring."
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Both agree that incidents involving the deaths of children have been the most difficult they have faced. Debbie, 42, said: "That is the toughest part of the job. You need the ability to detach yourself. You have to remember you are doing a job for someone, most importantly that child's family."
Laura added: "You think 'This child has not had a chance to live their life'. You wouldn't be a normal person if you didn't feel emotion when you do this job. In fact you'd be in the wrong job if you felt nothing."
Natural deaths in the home, particularly those where the deceased has lain undiscovered for some time have become a part of the job too. "You can only hope they went in their sleep," Laura said. "To die alone like that is very sad.
"Again, you can only be respectful. Often relatives will need to come into the property afterwards and we want to make sure there is nothing upsetting for them to see."
Debbie added: "I'm very family-orientated anyway, but this job has made me very sensitive about relatives who live alone. It does make you think about your own family."
Similarly, cases of hoarders - reclusive people who withdraw into their homes and surround themselves with their possessions - have tested their resolve on occasion. "There's a number of people out there living like that now," Debbie said. "When the worst happens it can be very upsetting for their families to come through the door and see how someone they loved has been living."
They came up with the idea for the new venture together over lunch with a friend. Laura was working as a sonographer, scanning pregnant women, while Debbie was installing disability lifts. Both women say they are not easily fazed and have had personal experience of caring for relatives and others through critical and terminal illness.
They obtained their qualifications, including the skills required to handle biohazardous materials, and set up their business, operating from Leicester Forest East, where they both live. Laura says: "The training prepares you for the harshest scenes, but that might not be the case for everyone.
"We're the only all-female team in Leicester. We think that can be important, for example, if we are called somewhere where a woman has been assaulted by her partner. We want her to be able to go back into her home and not be retraumatised."
Domestic violence rose "massively" during the Covid-19 lockdown and continues to feature prominently among the cases they deal with, Laura said. She added: "It was a difficult time. People were basically trapped in the home with perpetrators. Suicide went very high too."
She added: "You are dealing with someone on what is almost certainly the most traumatic day of their life. All we can do is help them to the best of our ability."
While Laura and Debbie's profession may look grim to many, it does get plenty of TV comparisons - most notably the Greg Davies BBC sitcom, The Cleaner. But, like many jobs represented in the media, the use of artistic licence can make things seem more dramatic than they actually are.
Laura said: "I think it's funny and it's good to see our industry represented. But when I'm watching it I'll be saying to my husband all the time 'that wouldn't happen'."
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