NHS Big Tea: Portsmouth Hospitals staff celebrated for long service on NHS' 74th birthday

More than 10 staff, including respiratory nurses Liz Walker and Nuala Whitehead, are being celebrated for their long service at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust.

Liz and Nuala last week retired after working with the trust for more than 40 years each.

When the pair joined the respiratory department, there were two consultants and two nurses.

The department now boasts more than 20 consultants, 15 nurse specialists and a multi-disciplinary team including physiotherapists and physiologists.

Nuala, who started in an acute medical ward and has just retired as a tuberculosis nurse specialist, said: ‘Nursing is a wonderful career. There are highs and lows but even the lows in time enrich your career. It provides an opportunity to make a meaningful difference, big or small to people’s lives.

‘The patients and people I have worked with, the narrative that can surround them can be like a novel or a news story. They can also be heart-breaking as their situation is often tragic, but it is also uplifting and inspirational.’

Liz, who joined the NHS in 1980, said: ‘One of the most memorable things was as part of my role working with the Association of Respiratory Nurse Specialists I was asked if I would be available to go to America with Stephen Hawking to care for him on a trip he was making. Ultimately the trip was cancelled as he wasn’t well enough to go.’

To celebrate their retirement Nuala and Liz will be completing a 500-mile walk through the Pyrenees and across northern Spain - a dream trip the pair have talked about throughout their career.

Respiratory colleague, Dr Edward Neville is celebrating 50 years in the NHS and worked with both Liz and Nuala in their early days.

For his dedication to patients and the education of staff, he won the South East NHS Parliamentary Lifetime Achievement Award.

The national winner will be announced at a ceremony in Westminster tomorrow (July 6).

Gynaecology staff nurse Lois Le Lion has a strong family tie to PHU after her parents met here when they both did their training in the early 1950s – just after the NHS was formed.

She did her nurse training in the same place just 27 years later and has been with PHU for 45 years.

Lois said: ‘I'm 65 this year and have now dropped my hour but I'd like to stay for a few more years because I still love my job.’

The trust’s chief nurse Liz Rix is also celebrating 40 years with the NHS this year.

She said: ‘I have had the pleasure and privilege to be a nurse for 40 years and have worked with amazing and dedicated colleagues during this time.’

A staff member also celebrating 50 years in their job is pharmacist Jane Marshall.

Staff celebrating 40 years are emergency department ward manager Julie Macdonald; neurology nurse specialist Charles Bell; vascular access nurse specialist Sarah Katterhorn; orthopaedics ward manager Sandra Dewis; AMU ward manager Heather Evans; Lotus Rehab ward manager, Susan Morris.