'Endlessly devoted' nurse retires after 62 years

A staff nurse has finally clocked off - 62 years after joining the NHS.

Grandmother-of-four Cath Lyon, christened "Mamma Cath" by colleagues at Hull Royal Infirmary, started out on 1 August 1962, aged 16.

She retired on Monday just weeks shy of her 80th birthday, with her bosses describing her as "caring, honest and endlessly devoted".

Cath, who spent her last 20 years working as a staff nurse in the emergency department, said: "I have loved every minute of it; just being able to help patients when they need it, even if it's something as simple as making them a drink or fetching them a blanket."

Cath studied nursing alongside working as a white cadet, assisting with filing and general organisation in the X-ray and pharmacy departments.

"My first role as as a staff nurse was in neurosurgery," Cath recalled.

"I remember it very fondly. We had our own night cook and they'd make you any food you wanted."

Cath then worked as a night sister - a role which has now been replaced by site matrons.

After that, she worked as a staff nurse in the emergency department for 20 years.

Cath saw many changes in the NHS, one of the biggest being the introduction of digital ways of working.

She said: "Everything was pen and paper when I first started, there were no computers. The hospitals are also much busier than they used to be."

Cath said a nurse needs "a good pair of hands and a good brain".

She said she was looking forward to spending time with her grandchildren.

Matron Emma Jones described Cath as "caring, honest and endlessly devoted to the emergency department".

"Cath is the kind of nurse who becomes the heartbeat of a place," she said.

"Her legacy is stitched into the walls of the emergency department.

"She kept us going through the hardest nights with perfectly timed midnight snacks, and she never allowed standards to slip."

Emma added: "Cath showed us what nursing really means: compassion with backbone, humour with authority and love for patients and colleagues that never once clocked off.

"We will miss you, Mamma Cath."

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