A PENSIONER whose nursing career started just before the NHS launched has shared her memories of working for the service.

Lillian Platt was 16 when she became a state enrolled nurse one year before the National Health Service began in 1948.

From using an iron lung to treat patients at height of the forties' polio epidemic, to running a family planning service during the sixties and seventies, the 87-year-old has witnessed a lot of changes over the decades.

Born and raised in Winnington, Lillian recalled a time pre-NHS when the doctor visited her home to collect money from her mother for the family’s medical care.

She said: “I was one of eight children and I remember the doctor coming every Monday morning and collecting a penny for each of us for our medical care.”

Along with her friend Kathleen Carter, Lillian began her nursing career at Northwich Isolation Hospital in Davenham where patients with infectious disease such as scarlet fever, measles and polio were treated.

She said: “We were just young girls and we were quite often left on our own to look after these patients. It was quite overwhelming at times. But we loved it.”

In 1949 Lillian, who now lives in The Crescent in Middlewich, transferred to Sefton General Hospital where she worked and trained as a general nurse. In 1953 she was appointed as an industrial nurse at The Associated Octel Company and spent six months at a hospital in Birmingham training in accident care.

She said: “My job was to treat the men who’d had accidents on the site, like getting chemicals in their eyes or on their skin. But because they were so good at accident prevention there I didn’t have that many patients. We used to joke that the most patients we saw were on a Monday morning and that’s because they’d injured themselves playing rugby or sport at the weekend.”

After a short spell out of the sector, when she ran an antique shop in London Road in Davenham, Lillian returned to the service to run the family planning clinic in Northwich where she worked for 17 years.

She said: “That was quite an experience – I saw a lot of eye opening things in that time. I like to think we helped a lot of people.”

Reflecting on the NHS today, Lillian added: “It was fantastic when the NHS came in and helped so many poor families who couldn’t really afford to pay for the care.

“It was a hard but rewarding job. The NHS still does a brilliant job today. The nurses and doctors all work very hard.”