After 38 years’ service, Mary Dunn, team leader/senior charge nurse, retired from NHS Lanarkshire.

Mary, who was attached to the Wishaw elderly community mental health team at the Houldsworth Centre, Wishaw, began her career in 1978 as a nursing assistant before becoming a student nurse in 1979.

After qualifying in 1982, Mary took up the post of staff nurse at Hartwood Hospital where she became one of the first female deputy ward sisters to work in the male corridor.

Mary then went on to work part-time whilst raising her family and, in 1990, secured a position as one of the first nurses in the newly-established PSG day hospital.

Mary was a bit of a trailblazer throughout her career and was often at the forefront of new and innovative practice and development within old age psychiatry. She successfully gained a promotion to senior charge nurse in the newly-formed care home liaison service and helped establish the service which still exists to this day.

Mary’s final move was to the post of senior charge nurse with the newly-formed community mental health team for older people in Wishaw, a post she held for 12 years.

Mary lives in Wishaw with her husband Gerry, who also recently retired from NHS Lanarkshire as a senior charge nurse with the community mental health team in Bellshill. Her retirement will allow Mary to spend more time with her grown-up and expanding family.

Colleagues in Mary’s team said: “Mary is a very valued member of our team and will be hugely missed. She is like a mother hen and looks after us all, whatever the circumstances. It is a small team and therefore we all work very closely together. We will miss her tell-tale facial expressions and we will all lose weight when she stops feeding us up. All our best wishes go to Mary and her family and we wish her a long and happy retirement.”