Nurse who started as cleaner joins elite group
Pretty ManyimoA woman who started her NHS career as a hospital cleaner has joined an elite group of nurses.
Pretty Manyimo took a job mopping and sweeping the wards at Glenfield Hospital when she first moved to the UK in 2002.
The 61-year-old has now been made a Queen's Nurse, a title awarded by the Queen's Institute of Community Nursing to people who have demonstrated a strong commitment to community nursing over several years.
"The sky is the limit if you follow your dreams," she said.
Manyimo first moved to the UK 24 years ago from Zimbabwe, where she worked as a primary school teacher.
She was the eldest in an extended family and so had experience caring for others, but had to start at the bottom of the career ladder when she arrived in the country.
"My first job was a cleaner at Glenfield Hospital," she said.
"My relationship with colleagues motivated me that I could become a nurse.
"It was me learning from them, how they communicated with patients with empathy and care. I wanted to be like them," she said.
Manyimo qualified as a nurse in 2012, and the following year started as a community nurse at Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT).
She went on to specialise in end-of-life care due to the poor experience her mother had received.
The nurse now works in the integrated specialist palliative care team, a joint initiative between LPT and the hospice LOROS.
She was made a Queen's Nurse in 2025 having applied to be part of the exclusive group.
"It is a great honour and a source of great pride and professional recognition to be awarded the Queen's Nurse title," she said.
"I was chuffed I was successful.
"The sky is the limit if you follow your dreams. With determination, perseverance and resilience you can achieve anything."
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