From Falklands' casualties to her community, Sister Beverley reveals 'privilege' of 49-year nursing career
30.08.2024
A Denbighshire nurse who witnessed Falklands War casualties and comforted the sick and grieving, while considering it a “privilege”, has retired after 49 years’ serving her community.
Sister Beverley Edwards started her marathon shift in 1975, when those lucky enough to have a car could get a litre of petrol for 16 pence, a brand new Ford Cortina to put it in for £1,765 and an average house for a mere £11,000.
During her working life the country voted to join the EU under Labour’s Harold Wilson, then voted to leave when Boris Johnson was in charge. Beverley has worked through good times and not so good, even seeing the injuries inflicted on British troops during the Falklands War.
She was given a fitting send-off, with plenty of tears and tributes, by colleagues in the Ruthin and Corwen district nursing team last week. Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board Chair Dyfed Edwards and Deputy Executive Director of Nursing Chris Lynes were also there to pay tributes to her service.
It was clear Beverley remained a constant throughout the lives of people within the communities she served and the colleagues she worked with. She revealed how much it has all meant to her.
She said: “I feel quite privileged and honoured to be part of those people's lives. When I think back to the number of lives I've helped save, the number of people I've seen to a peaceful death. I wouldn't change any of it.
“I've got some lovely memories and people are so grateful for you. Sometimes we think patients aren’t grateful, but they are.”
After becoming a State Enrolled Nurse in training at Wrexham in 1975 Beverley went on to work for 12 months in the city’s old War Memorial Hospital on Grosvenor Road. However, in 1980 she decided to take up a long-held wish to join the forces.
“I didn't want to go in the Army,” she revealed, before quipping. “It was between the Navy and the Air Force but I didn't like the hats the nurses wore in the Navy. So I went for the RAF.”
During her four-and-a-half years’ in Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service, she worked at RAF Halton, Buckinghamshire. It was there as a young nurse she would witness injuries which had a profound effect on her, when casualties from the Falklands War conflict were transferred in from the South Atlantic.
She said: “We did have patients from the Falklands in the hospital we were in. I wasn’t on their ward but we had the Gurkhas and I do have memories of, I mean, you know…they had horrific burns. Going down to reception in the morning, you could hear them screaming in pain while they were having a shower and dressings. You know, it's a memory…it's something you can't forget.”
Beverley returned to work in Llangollen and Cefn Mawr district nursing team, where she gained her Specialist Practice Qualification as a District Nurse. In 2010 she became a case load holder within the Corwen district nursing team, before retiring and returning in 2018.
Since 2019 Beverley has worked in the Ruthin and Corwen team but she vowed this was really her last stint and it was time to hang up her fob watch for good.
She still had time to offer some words of advice for those young nurses destined to follow in her footsteps.
“You know, you've got to look at it as a privilege to look after that person,” she said. “Because you're a part of what's going on in their life. I think you've just got to look at the work with a positive attitude, really.
“You’ve got to be caring. You've got to be passionate about the job - have some compassion - and you know, just listen to them. Patients are people at the end of the day. You've got to listen to what they say, what they want. Communication is a big, a big part of being a good nurse.”
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