After an incredible 37 years of NHS service, spanning across five decades, we said a fond farewell to our fantastic Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Lynn Gray, who retired yesterday.

As Lynn celebrates her achievement, what better time to take a look back over the years and find out a little more about Lynn’s career and commitment to the health service…

From a young age, Lynn wanted to be a nurse. When she was at primary school, she was put in charge of the first aid box and when she picked up that first aid box, she never set it down again. Working in multiple trusts on multiple sites, Lynn has seen it all. From a trainee dental surgery assistant, to the Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Lynn’s career has been extensive.

She started out at Guy’s Hospital in 1980, then went on to do her nurse training at Bromley Health Authority (as it was called then), qualifying in 1984 and then working on a male medical ward until the birth of her first child in 1986. Lynn then briefly left the health service after securing a role as a school nurse with the Shaftsbury Society, looking after children and young adults with severe learning disabilities, but returned to the NHS in the early 90s after having her second child.

In 1995, Lynn became the Ward Manager of the Medical Assessment Unit and five years later was appointed onto the New Hospital Commissioning Team to build the PFI hospital on the Farnborough site in Bromley. From here, Lynn joined the Executive Team as an Executive Assistant to the Chief Nurse and Chief Operations Officer before being successfully appointed as Divisional Nurse Manager for Medicine in 2007. When Bromley Hospitals merged with two other local trusts, Lynn became the Divisional Nurse Director of Medicine within South London Healthcare Trust, but was made redundant in 2013 when the trust was dissolved.

It was this year that Lynn’s MTW career took off! Lynn described this as being a choice initially made out of necessity after the dissolving of her previous Trust. However, she soon realised that MTW was a perfect fit for her, saying, “At the time I didn’t realise how lucky I was to join such a great Trust.” It has been a pleasure to have Lynn work alongside us here at MTW, and know that our lasting memory of Lynn will reflect her own of us; “What I will remember of MTW will be how friendly everyone is and how much people care both about the patients and each other”.

To commemorate her amazing commitment and work to not only MTW, but the wider NHS, Lynn visited Parliament last week as a guest of MP for Tunbridge Wells, Greg Clark, who presented her with her Long Service Certificate on the House of Commons Terrace. After this, Lynn and our Chief Operating Office, Sean Briggs, attended Prime Minister’s Question Time, with Sean later tweeting: “Massive thank you to the @GregClarkMP and his team in supporting @MTWnhs celebrate the fantastic Lynn Gray’s career as she gets close to retirement! Here he is presenting her with a certificate marking her 37 years’ service. She has been the most incredible servant to the NHS.”

Thank you, Lynn, for your 37 years of service to the NHS, and thank you for spending nine of those with us here at the Trust!