A nurse has been reflecting on an “amazing career” having completed 49 years of loyal service at Royal Blackburn Hospital, but said she isn't calling it a day just yet.

Julie Clark, 65, left Witton Park High School in 1974 and joined the cadets at Blackburn Royal Infirmary, where she worked until it closed and moved to Royal Blackburn Hospital.

She has worked across numerous departments at the hospital over the years, and she also worked as a practice nurse for a local GP for 23 years, whilst picking up part-time night shifts at the hospital.

When that work finished, she increased her hours at the hospital, and she currently works in the Coronary Care Unit.

Across her 49 years, she has experienced the highs and lows of the NHS but believes it is the most rewarding job you can have.

Julie, of Kings Road, Ewood, said: “It has been an amazing career. Every shift you go in is different, you meet different people, and you learn something new.

“We are like a family, and we support each other, and it is a very rewarding job at the moment it is very hard, but everybody tries their best.

“It's very rewarding, the job never lets you down and looking at it from a personal point of view, I love my job and it is just a brilliant career.”

She isn’t quite ready to walk away yet and is returning on a part-time basis to complete her 50th year and will be working two nights a week from October.

The support given to nurses and watching them grow has been an essential part of her mantra as she has gained more experience.

Julie added: “It is great when you help other nurses stand up and you are proud of them.

“There is no place like the NHS in the world, even though now everything is really hard work and lacking in money and investment.

“We don’t realise how lucky we are in this country to have the NHS.”

Julie admits she hasn’t given her retirement much thought yet but is looking forward to spending more time with her family as well as gardening and decorating, and hopes to see her brother who lives in Australia.

Julie completed the move to part-time after her shift finished on Wednesday, October 2.

She added: “I have not sat and thought because it has come some quick.

"One minute I had five years off retiring and now that it is it I think I will just enjoy being part-time.

“I could write a book with a lot of things that have happened there are too many things to say, it has just been an amazing career, and it has not really hit me.”