HRI theatres celebrated a shared retirement of three colleagues with an amazing 120 years service between them, and almost all of their time has been spent working together.

Carol Ruta, Lorraine Sykes (pictured with her granddaughter Isla) and Cheryl Eyles will all have officially retired by the end of July and their HRI theatre team colleagues all contributed to a buffet to say goodbye..

Clinical operations manager Sharon Berry, said: "They are having a party for family, friends and theatre staff past and present in July, but this was the opportunity to celebrate with their colleagues.

"They will be greatly missed as you can imagine with so much experience between them. They have been responsible for shaping the careers of so many theatre practitioners and giving us all high standards to aspire to throughout our theatre careers. Lorraine and Carol both have children who have followed them into careers in healthcare and specifically theatre and the team just wanted to say a big thank you."

Lorraine told CHFT Weekly: "I started in theatres in 1980 and achieved my Orthopaedic Nursing Certificate in 1975, and qualified as an SRN in 1980.

"Carol, Cheryl and I all started in theatres within a short space of time in the early 80s, and it's been absolutely fantastic working together all this time in the same place. We're a really close knit group in theatres, and do quite a bit outside of work. We'll definitely stay in touch.

"My daughter Lucy has been working alongside me in theatres as a staff nurse for five years and Carol's son also works in the health service, so I guess they must have seen what working here means to us".

"I'm looking forward to retiring. There will be plenty of holidays, looking after my grandaughter Isla, walking and just basically enjoying life!"