Jan Elliot’s 44-year nursing career has been punctuated by some memorable events - from delivering triplets on a ‘quiet’ Sunday afternoon to organising a magical wedding for a terminally ill patient. But Christmas this year is going to be memorable in its own way, as one of the first she’s ever spent relaxing with her family.

Last week the retiring Sister in Charge at Ross Community Hospital was given an emotional send-off by colleagues and friends.

Jan had also been keen to give parting gifts to her patients and staff – helping the Friends of Ross Community Hospital (“who’ve given us fantastic support over the years”) with the hospital garden makeover and overseeing work on the new staff kitchen.

Jan started training at the Preston Royal Infirmary in Lancaster in 1976 “when I was very shy and wouldn’t have said boo to a goose!” During her training she met Alec who was serving in the submarine service of the Royal Navy and they married in 1980. The couple went on to have two sons, Greg and Tom.

Having worked for a year in acute medicine and coronary care at Preston, Jan became staff midwife and labour ward sister at the Vale of Leven Hospital near Loch Lomond in West Dumbartonshire where she delivered hundreds of babies including her own god-daughter Lisa.

“One Sunday I was left alone for the first time in charge of the maternity unit and told everything was quiet. By 5pm I was delivering the first of a set of triplets.”

When Alec left the Navy the couple moved to Kent where for a short spell Jan did agency nursing before taking a job at Pembury Hospital in Tunbridge Wells as a senior staff nurse and night sister. In 1995 Alec’s work took him to Bromsgrove and the couple settled in Bromyard.

Jan joined the staff at Hereford Community Hospital then became senior staff nurse at Ledbury’s old Cottage Hospital “a sweet little hospital on the high street with just 13 beds”. From there she moved to Shaw Healthcare (providing contracted services for the NHS). She returned for a spell at Ledbury’s new community hospital before being invited to apply for the matron’s role at Leominster Community Hospital, where she worked from 2008 until Christmas 2011 when, at short notice, she was transferred to Ross.