A dedicated NHS worker in York returned back to work after retirement and says she couldn't happier as she reminisces over her 42-year career.

Donna McPeake, 59, returned to work at Foss Park Hospital, in Haxby Road, during the first Covid lockdown in 2020, and three years on she is still there.

"I felt I needed to play my part – to be an extra pair of hands at a time of crisis," she said.

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Donna, who is originally from Seaham in County Durham, secured her first NHS job at 18, when she started as a healthcare assistant at Cherry Knowle Hospital in Sunderland in 1981.

After leaving school at 15, she first worked in an accounts office and then in car sales, but knew she wanted something different. 

She then applied to work at the hospital after talking to a girl who worked there herself, and was fascinated by the sound of her job.

She completed her training as a state enrolled nurse (SEN) in July 1984, and moved to York to work as an SEN on an older people's ward at Naburn Hospital.

She then worked at Bootham Park Hospital two years later, and then Clifton Hospital where she worked until 1989.

Donna said: "I loved working with people, which is why I trained as an SEN. It was known as 'the bedside nurse' at the time, as it was all about hands-on care.

"One of the saddest things I witnessed were two ladies who had become pregnant out of wedlock years earlier. They were sent to the hospital and spent their lives there.

"I’ve seen a great many changes and I’m very glad that kind of thing is part of the past!”

She then trained as a registered mental health nurse with York and Scarborough School of Nursing, before starting work at Worsley Court in Selby, and then as a community psychiatric nurse around Selby, York and Easingwold.

Donna said: "Worsley offered respite and assessment for older people with a range of cognitive impairments, and I learned a lot there.

"After that, I moved to the adult team in Selby, where we dealt with range of enduring psychiatric disorders – such as anxiety, chronic depression, psychosis and bi-polar disorder."

Donna then stepped back from full time work due to childcare commitments as her husband worked away, and she studied for a degree in Health Studies.

She trained as a teacher and lectured in nursing at York College and University of York, but missed nursing.

Donna finally returned to the profession once her daughter started senior school, working as a community psychiatric nurse in older people’s services in York.

She became an advanced nurse practitioner in mental health services for older people until she retired in 2020 - only for her career to come full circle as returned to work as a health care assistant when Covid hit.

Donna said: "I’m very proud of the NHS, and very proud to be part of it. Working in health care was, and always has been, my vocation. It’s what I wanted from a very early age."

"It really is a vocation - and I'd definitely do it all over again!"