A NEWPORT nurse is hanging up her uniform after 48 years.

Sue Kirby, 65, of Malpas, is bidding farewell after almost five decades in the job, all of which she has spent working at St Woolos Hospital and the Royal Gwent Hospital.

After moving from Brecon in 1963 to train as a pre-nursing student at St Woolos Hospital in 1963, Ms Kirby then became a nursing student in 1964.

She spent three years training on the wards to qualify as a state registered nurse.

She continued working at St Woolos taking up night shift duties from 1969 to 1975 before being transferred to the Royal Gwent Hospital where she worked as a night duty nurse on the post-natal ward for a short while.

It was then that she moved to the main theatre unit at the hospital working on the main recovery ward where she has been ever since.

She said: "I always wanted to be a nurse from a very early age.

"I have very much enjoyed it and have always loved the surgical side of nursing."

Although Ms Kirby isn’t quite sure how she’ll spend her retirement just yet, she plans to finish some home decorating and continue to help run the Ranger Guide unit at St Mary’s Church, Stow Hill.