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Peggy Sarsfield

My sister was three years older than me, and she was already across here at St James’ doing her training. She made the base for the rest of us. She used to be always telling us about patients, the funny things that had happened to her, and being at her first delivery of a baby. I found all of that interesting and I thought, ‘Well I would quite like to do something like that as well.’

After completing my schooling, I just applied to come to St James’. I had no interest in going anywhere else, simply because I had my sister here and I knew that I would settle easier.

Even though it was hard leaving home, it was exciting as well, but at least my mum and dad were happy that we were going to be with each other.

I went to work in medicine for the elderly, which I’d loved in my training. They were just such an interesting group. When they finally got used to my accent and stopped asking the man in the next bed, “What did she say?,” I just loved them. They were able to tell you so many stories about the wars, about what they did, about Leeds and everything.

You’d be on a ward on night duty and you’d be looking after a ward on your own. The Sister would come round to see you, but it made you realise how important it was to be on the ball and to just remember that anything could happen. After 43 years, what I’d be proud of most is the fact that I did the best I could.

Peggy’s story was collected for the Irish Nurses in the NHS Oral History Project led by Professor Louise Ryan and Grainne McPolin, with Neha Doshi, London Metropolitan University.

Dr Prakash Sinha

Prakash Sinha was an oncoplastic reconstructive cancer surgeon and the Medical Director of Princess Royal University Hospital and South Sites at the King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. He died in service at the age of 58 in October 2020.

Connie Bennett

I came over from Manila in the Philippines in 1970 to train at the Westminster School of Nursing in London. I'm from a large family and being the oldest girl of nine children, I knew that I had to make some decisions about my future and fast!

Jessica Anne Filoteo

When I was in my 20s, I read the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. She talked about her travels in Italy in such detail that by the time I finished reading it, I decided that I wanted to do the same. I wanted to travel around Europe and experience their culture, and the best way for me to do that was to work and live in the UK.

Josie Caulfield

When my brother was little, an ambulance came to take him to hospital. I remember the ambulance pulling into our street and I saw this nurse sat in the front and I thought, ‘What a wonderful job. I would love to do that.’ I was only seven or eight years old at the time, but that thought kept in my mind. I kept telling my mum, ‘I would like to be a nurse.’
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