Many people in this book mention personal satisfaction and a sense of having done worthwhile work as among their most important achievements.

Today Dr Neslyn Watson-Druée leads the Kingston Primary Care NHS Trust. She is “enormously proud of what I’ve achieved and the key to those achievements have been courage, drive and tenacity … The NHS is a brilliant place to be. You can excel in human resources, science, nursing, medicine, administration, information management and technology, and the list goes on … In the whole scheme of things, it is almost as if there has been a guardian angel there guiding me all the time because all of those experiences have actually come to shape the woman I am. It is those experiences that have made me such a positive advocate. When I’m actually saying to people out there in the Health Service, ‘Yes, racism does exist, and you too can overcome it. I have.’”

Denzil Nurse was a psychiatric nurse in the NHS for 23 years, as well as working with his local community in Huddersfield. Recently, he has also worked on community initiatives in Gambia. He says his achievements “include recognition for my community work and

Gambian newspaper coverage for community initiatives in Gambia.” For him, “my life’s work was around people. In nursing it was about caring for people and … I have fulfilled that aspiration … Generally speaking, my work in the Health Service has been a positive experience. I think the negative experiences only served to build my character. You take the rough with the smooth and make the best of your life … the experience of coming to Britain and working in the NHS has given me enormous satisfaction tinged with one or two unfriendly situations. I have never let them override or blot out what was a fantastic experience.”

Tryphena Anderson pretty well achieved all she wanted, although she does have one regret: “The positive side is, thank God, not all people were prejudiced and against the advancement of black people. I did everything I set out to do but one thing I wanted to do was wear the cream uniform of the Jamaican health visitor. I would have loved to have had that job in Jamaica.”

For personal reasons – children and a divorce – Margaret Knight was not able to continue nursing. She worked for a while in administration and then returned to Barbados.

She is “sorry that I could not go further with my nursing and complete it. I would have liked to become a qualified nurse.” However, she achieved much in a secretarial career and also became a writer. She is “proud of what I have achieved. I have learnt from my … short career in the NHS a great sense of responsibility and discipline and I have been able to use this discipline in my life and with my children.”

Lena Hunt says she “never particularly wanted to be in management. I always wanted to do ‘hands-on’ nursing, which is what I did all my years. I was also able to do that and fit it in with family commitments. So it worked out quite well. I think there is as much difference between nursing now and nursing then, as there was between Florence Nightingale’s nursing days and nursing in the 1950s … Many of us went into things blindly and came up with a nice romantic idea of what nursing was about. Would I do it again? The answer would be yes!”

Mrs Daisy Anson worked in hospital canteen departments until she returned to the Caribbean in 1975. “In the cooking line I was the only black person until I got my cousin,” and her cooking talent earned her popularity and respect with both staff and patients.