A dedicated nurse with over four decades of experience is leaving Whipps Cross Hospital.

Margaretta Rooney is hanging up her uniform after forty-two years at the Leytonstone hospital with plans to finally ‘chill out’.

Aged 61 she is leaving the rheumatology department for quality time with her family.

Margaretta began training at the hospital in 1973 at the age of eighteen, fresh off of the boat from her home in Westmeath, Ireland.

“I thought of coming to England as an adventure,” she said.

“I had two sisters who were nurses in Ireland and I wanted to be different. However, I arrived at the hospital and there were already so many Irish nurses. But when compared to my home in the country, east London was a very different world.

“I loved nursing right from the beginning. I was a very successful student nurse and as part of my training I worked across the whole hospital, including the Intensive Care Unit and in midwifery.”

After qualifying in 1976, Margaretta worked as a staff nurse in the orthopaedics department until promotion in ’79 saw her become junior sister on Curie Ward for female orthopaedics.

Just three years later she was made senior ward sister.

But, it was in 1992 when Margaretta joined the rheumatology department that she felt instantly at home, enjoying the rapport with patients.

She explained: “I immediately loved rheumatology for the long-term help and support that we give to patients; we really get to know them and their families well over the years.

“It is important as a nurse to put your patients at the centre of all you do and you become their professional friend.”

A pioneer in research, Margaretta was among the first clinical practitioners in the country, as well as one of the first nurses to actively support patient clinical trials.

This work has directly contributed to the many medical advancements in the field of rheumatology as well as the establishment of Whipps Cross Hospital as one of the leading departments in the UK.

Among Margaretta’s proudest achievements is the establishment of an east London Asian branch of a rheumatology patients support group, so that people who did not speak English as their first language had the same access to specialist care and new treatments.

A keen supporter of holistic care, Margaretta also created an ‘arthritis garden’ in the grounds of Whipps Cross in 1998 that is still providing a space for staff and patients to relax in today.

“I came to England for the adventure, but stayed at Whipps Cross because of the great team,” she added.

“Many of the staff have also been here for years and we all support and look out for each other; the nurses, medical team and secretaries, everybody. We are a good, professional team.

“I am proud of what I do; I’m a very successful nurse with a great career and have enjoyed lots of opportunities at the hospital including in more recent years completing a degree.

“I have also loved getting to know my patients. They congratulated me when I got married and had my daughter, and continue to ask me all these years later about how she is doing.

“In this role you have the privilege of meeting many people, and you learn much about life and death.

“To retire will be a big shock. I might be sixty-one years of age on paper, but I intend to thoroughly enjoy myself.”