[NV111] : Elona at St George's 1952-1955


Elona: St. George's 1952-55 Click photo to read and listen to her story

Born in 1934 in Yorkshire. She arrived at St. George’s Hyde Park Corner to commence her training having never having been to London before.During her training Elona worked at Hyde Park Corner, Tooting and the Atkinson Morley Hospital. She had finished her training and taken her final exams but about this time, her father had a coronary, and she had to ask Matron to be released three months short of the completion of her staffing year. While Matron was not very happy about it, she did in fact release her.

During the three months helping her mother and father, the district nurse went down with jaundice. She told the Medical Officer of Health that one of her patients had a daughter who was just qualified, staying with them and she might help out for a short period. Elona was given a bicycle, a bag, and a nurse's diary and was introduced to nursing in the community in a mining area. This was an eye-opener, quite different from working in a hospital, and which gave her a taste for community work.

She went onto the district in Lowestoft and stayed there until 1974, when she went to Surrey University and became a district nursing tutor. She then became a district nursing tutor for the Norfolk Health Authority with three health districts. She then came to teach health related subjects in a local college. She stayed there until she retired in 1995.

While she may have moved away from nursing, she has accomplished a tremendous range of other things that have linked into her basic background and therefore she is very thankful for all the wonderful experiences she has had at St. George’s.

To read & listen to Elona's experiences whilst at St George's please click on Elona's Story