LONGEST-serving Minehead Minor Injuries Unit (MIU) nurse Iris Spence retires today (Friday) after 35 years.

Iris, who is now 71 years old and lives with her family in Minehead, has worked for the NHS trust running the hospital since 1987.

She was born and brought up in South Africa where she was nurse and midwife ‘out in the bush’, as she put it.

Iris completed her general nurse training in Johannesburg General Hospital in 1971, and followed this two years later by a diploma in midwifery.

On moving to the UK she worked as a staff nurse in Williton Hospital and then in the ‘casualty’ department at Minehead Hospital before becoming the sister in 1992.

In 2005, Iris became one of the first emergency nurse practitioners (ENPs) in the trust and then the manager of Minehead MIU.

She continued as an ENP until 2016 when she stepped back and worked in the MIU as a staff nurse supporting the practitioners, although she was still recognised as being a ‘really important person’ in the unit.

Colleague and managerial lead west Hannah Coleman said: “I know that without her support, I would not be where I am now.

“She is the longest-serving staff member in Minehead MIU and we all feel her retirement is the end of an era.”

Iris decided to take retirement to give her more time with her two grandsons and for her hobbies of gardening and knitting.

Pictured left is

nurse Iris Spence.