AFTER more than 30 years caring for other people, Angela Walmsley can now put her feet up and relax.

Angela, director of nursing at Beardwood Hospital, has retired after 20 years service.

But her nursing career started when she took up a post as a staff nurse at Blackburn Royal Infirmary in 1966.

She joined the Beardwood Hospital when it was known as Our Lady of Compassion and managed by the Servite Sisters.

The hospital was taken over by private health care firm BMI in 1991 and Angela was promoted to ward sister the following year.

She was later promoted to senior sister and then to director of nursing.

She said: "Working at the Beardwood Hospital has allowed me to progress my management responsibilities while still being able to maintain patient contact and it is being able to deliver quality nursing care which I find most satisfying.

"I will certainly miss the patient contact, although I will now be able to spend more time relaxing and gardening."

Angela has always juggled family life with her nursing career over the last 34 years and will now be able to spend more time with husband Robin and her two grown up sons, Edward and Alastair.

Picture shows Beardwood Hospital executive director Mark Almond presenting Angela with a bouquet watched by, from the left, Margaret Aspinall, Judith Woods, Frances McLoughlin, Frances Gierat, Margaret Sims, Pat McGrath and Margaret Murtagh.

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