Farewell
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Gill Howard
Deborah Mercer Deborah started her nurse training at the Trust in 1981, living in the Old Nurses’ Home at Saint James’s, present day Trust HQ. She spent her whole 39 year career at Leeds Teaching Hospitals. making a huge contribution to innovative nursing practice within the Emergency Department and the development of the Emergency Nurse Practitioner training.
Happy retirement to Gill Howard who was a Specialist Pharmacy Technician managing the ward stock distribution service at the LGI. Gill had worked within MMPS for 34 years and enjoyed a small gathering with her fantastic team at MRDU. Gill planned to retire in March this year and moved her plans back to continue to support the Pharmacy team eventually retiring in July. Gill will be greatly missed by all her friends and colleagues who wish her all the best in her retirement. The team would like to say thank you to the MRDU team for making her send-off so special. Gill received many lovely gifts including a garden seat on which she now can spend many relaxing days drinking her pink gin!
Deborah’s knowledge and expertise was second to none within the Trust. Following the birth of her children she returned to a role within the Clinical Site Management team and becoming Team Leader for a number of years, before retiring and returning part time to the role of CSM. She will always be known as the ‘Winter Planning Queen’ through her meticulous attention to detail. Her planning was remarkable and she often worked well into the night to meet deadlines and ensure challenges were met. This year in 2020, Deborah finally made the decision to retire fully from the Trust due to ill health and to enjoy her time with her family and friends, and to take the time to do all the things retired ladies need to do. The respect the CSM team have for Deborah as a person is immense. There are many people over the years who she has developed and shaped into leaders of the future. Her colleagues wish her happiness in her retirement and are planning lots of lunch dates to catch up when she’s not out enjoying the countryside in her camper van with the family.
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Helen Inns Helen Inns Advanced (Senior) Biomedical Scientist retired from Microbiology in June after 38 years of service to the NHS. Her career started in Haematology at LGI in 1982. She changed discipline to Microbiology in 1987 taking up a post St Luke’s Hospital Bradford. In 1991 she moved to Microbiology at LTHT to her senior role, working at St James’s and LGI. During this time Helen has helped develop the service and made a significant contribution in the development of our current BMS staff. Helen’s dedication, work ethic and breadth of knowledge will be missed as will her ever supportive nature.
Graham Hartley Graham commenced in the Data Quality department in 2008, a very different change in direction from his former career. When Graham left university he became a research development engineer and was a school teacher for design and technology for 20 years in Goole Humberside. In 2008 he decided to take a very different change in his career when he retired from teaching and joined the Data Quality Department at LTHT. Graham’s teaching skills were an asset not only to the complex investigative work the DQ team carry out but also assisting with the training of staff. Graham was a valued member of the team and will be missed, but the time is right for him and his colleagues all wish him the very best in his retirement as now he will have more time to enjoy his passion outside of work which is taking part in historical re-enactments - the English Civil War which Graham takes an active part in and travels all around the UK to take part. There was one occasion at work when Graham asked to use the telephone - he was ringing the police regarding a gun. As you can imagine all ears pricked up. The explanation Graham gave was that he was in charge of transporting the cannon and required police interaction – phew!
