Page 31 - QARANC Vol 20 No 3 2023

distance one in the early days. Eventually, they were posted to Wiltshire within five miles of one another. Then, in 1985, Pat was assigned to work in intensive care at Aldershot.
Again, she was being pushed by the Army to try something new. She laughs: “I felt it was the worst thing in the world to be going to intensive care, because it’s all machines and very technical and I just didn’t want to go. I got in touch with the ward sister, and she advised me to do three months and if I really don’t like it, I would be posted elsewhere. Within two days I realised I had found my calling – intensive care.
“I think that’s one of the wonderful things about the army: they take you out of your comfort zone and that can be the making of you. I went from maternity to a surgical ward in Northern Ireland, then to Emergency Department and outpatients. I went to Tidworth, to primary health care and a completely different way of nursing, and then two and a half years to intensive care. One, you get loads of experience, and two, it gives you the opportunity to find your niche.”
Pat had left the regulars in 1983 but kept on getting phone calls inviting her to join the Territorial Army and continue in her job but as a reservist, which she did. During the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone in 2014, Pat’s role was preparing people to go to a stricken country. She was told that a matron was required and agreed to put her name down, “not for one minute
I’ve no regrets though, I
can honestly say I’ve enjoyed all my postings, all my deployments, all of
them have given me something different
thinking I’d get it,” she said. Two days later, a letter arrived with the joining instructions. More adventures followed.
Pat joined the QARANC Association as a retired nurse, becoming a member of the Aldershot Branch Committee and finally chair, having been persuaded to take on the role temporarily – that was almost three years ago!
Despite being retired, Pat is always ready to roll up her sleeves and muck in when duty calls. During Covid she went back to intensive care to lend her skills, really enjoying being back on the frontlines, and as the crisis eased, she made the daily calls to patients at home to check on them and escalate issues.
And what of the Hong Kong dream? Happily, Pat did finally get to go – in 1996 – the year before the handover. However, she was not able to travel there at the Army’s expense. “We spent two brilliant weeks in Hong Kong,” she recalls.
“Every day I kept on saying to my husband that I would have loved this posting! For whatever reason, it wasn’t to be. I’ve no regrets though, I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed all my postings, all my deployments, all of them have given me something different.”
Pat was in conversation with Steve Bax
The Gazette QARANC Association 31