Nurse who worked through Covid retires with award

Ms Lewis qualified at King's College Hospital in London in 1970

A nurse who has retired after 57 years at the NHS said she needs to "find a new purpose in life".

Doreen Lewis, from Shepton Mallet in Somerset, started her career in healthcare in 1967. She worked at the front line during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In August, she retired and received a silver award from NHS England for her services to nursing.

"Retirement is a bit of a shock. I've got to find some other purpose in life," Ms Lewis said.

Ms Lewis said her career as a nurse was "very challenging, it wasn't straight forward".

"I enjoyed it, I met amazing people," she added.

She worked in emergency care across hospitals in Bristol and Bath.

During the Covid pandemic she found it was very rewarding to help people.

"We saw a lot of unwell people," she remembered. "We’d see people in the car park and get them in the back way so they wouldn’t get people infected.

"It was rewarding, we were playing our parts. It was routine, just another thing to overcome."

"I worked through the Ebola crisis as well. Avian flu, various things. It's one of those things," she said.

NHS England said the silver award is given to "nurses or midwives who demonstrate excellence in clinical practice, education, research, patient and carer experience, leadership, tackling diversity and health inequalities".

Ms Lewis' team had nominated her for the award.

"The award was an absolute surprise," Ms Lewis said. "I didn't expect it."

On retirement, Ms Lewis said: "I think it’ll take quite a bit of getting used to, I don’t have to get up quite so early in the morning."

She has taken up golf and is thinking about volunteering, but plans to first take a few months off to see old friends.