A great great-grandmother celebrates 80 years dedicated to the 'wonderful' NHS.

A great great-grandmother celebrates 80 years dedicated to the 'wonderful' NHS. Audrey Joughin has worked in Britain's hospitals her whole career and still volunteers 80 years later A 96-year-old great-grandmother is celebrating almost 80 years of dedication to the ‘wonderful’ NHS since it was founded. Audrey Joughin worked in British hospitals her whole career after becoming a senior medical laboratory scientific officer specialising in histology - the examination of tissue. She retired in 1992 before she returned to work as a volunteer for the Royal Liverpool Hospital two years later, describing the NHS as "marvellous" and "wonderful". After retiring, she first volunteered as a ‘trolley-dolly’ for the tea bar, Audrey now undertakes office junior tasks her managers are too busy to complete. Audrey, who has helped out every Thursday since 1994, said: “My eyes and ears are starting to go a little bit but the staff give me tasks they know I can do. “Today I’ve paper clipped and stapled some papers together and put labels on various things. We now provide earplugs and eyeshades for people who have to stay in A&E for a long time and I’ve been putting earplugs in little bags. “I absolutely love volunteering. It’s the highlight of my week. I’ll carry on for as long as they’ll have me.” Audrey’s passion and determination started at a young age and she completed her O Levels with a view to eventually gaining a place at university in 1946. The mum-of-two said: “There weren’t a lot of university places in those days. The war had just finished and the boys who had returned got first refusal for university. Then the boys with O Levels were the next ones to get a place. There weren’t a lot of spaces left for girls to go.” So in late 1946, Audrey answered an advert in the Liverpool Echo to be a laboratory assistant in the pathological department in her local hospital and started the role in January 1947, aged 16 ½. A year and a half later - in May 1948 - Clement Atlee founded the NHS and Audrey has been with the institution ever since. She explained her first role was with Smithdown Road Hospital which became Sefton General after the NHS was founded. “Absolutely nothing changed except we had a new employer and it was the government.” Audrey worked for the next ten years – moving up in seniority – until, after her marriage to Harry Joughin, an accountant, in 1955, she became pregnant with her first child, Keith. The gran-of-four said: “After Keith was born, I left work. There was no opportunity for women to return to work at reduced hours or with flexi-time back in those days. You were waved off and expected to go and look after the children.” But Audrey’s career was far from over and, a few years later in 1964, she was headhunted by Stanley Hospital, which later became the new Royal Liverpool Hospital. Audrey, who lives in Liverpool, said: “I had two children by then – Keith and Aileen – and I told them I could only work around school hours. But they were happy to oblige.” Audrey ended up returning to Sefton General in 1965 before the department of histology moved to Liverpool Women’s Hospital. “There was a new discipline by this point,” Audrey said. “The cytology department which is the examination of shed cells – smear tests and things like that.” The great-grandmother-of-four continued to work there until her retirement in 1992 at 62. She said: “Harry and I went travelling for the next couple of years and did a round the world trip that was absolutely fantastic. “When we got back, he started volunteering at our local church and I started volunteering with the Woman’s Royal Volunteering Service. “There was a tea bar in the Royal Liverpool Hospital but patients couldn’t always get to it so we started taking a trolley round to people. “It had a lovely big pot of tea on, sachets of coffee, hot chocolate and biscuits.” Audrey’s role has changed over the years and now she does office tasks that her managers, Julie Sheridan and Debbie Grimes, give her. She said: “Julie and Debbie give me things they know I can do and I help out in whatever way I can.” Audrey described the NHS as a ‘wonderful institution’. She said: “Things have changed a lot over the years for lab technicians like me and I think my job was more interesting in my day because we did so much by hand. “But the mechanisation and technological advancement of everything has made it a lot better in many ways.” Audrey, who still lives at home independently and makes her own way to the hospital on a bus, added: “I love volunteering. I’ll do it for as long as I’m physically able.” Julie Sheridan, Volunteer Services Co-ordinator at Royal Liverpool University Hospital described Audrey as “amazing”. She said: “She’s absolutely wonderful. The stories she tells us. She really brightens up our day. We don’t want her to go anywhere.”