I was born in south Leeds, very much working-class. My parents both worked in tailoring. My dad was a tailor’s cutter, which meant he did made-to-measure tailoring – men’s tailoring, obviously - and my mum was a tailoress, which all her family were, because that's what women did in Leeds in those days.

It was a back-to-back house with the toilet down the street shared with a couple of families, and we used to have to put a little lamp in there in the winter to stop the system freezing over. A bath in front of the fire, and I was one of four children and we just kept warming the water up - you didn't change the water and I was the last one in! And that was once a week, which you can't believe now. And my dad was very keen and he used to have us kneeling in front of him and use a nit comb because we could not have nits - and we never did. So that was the environment.

My dad was actually at sea when I was born - I was born in ’42. The earliest memory I ever had of him, of anything really, was sitting on his knee and he was singing ‘You Are My Sunshine’. Being very working-class, I never expected to go anywhere, but I sort of worked my way up. And the first time I went to Thailand, we went on a coach trip and coming back we sang that song - and I remember thinking “Never in a million years would my dad ever believe that I would be in Thailand singing this!”

I mean we did have holidays, but obviously it was only to Brid or Scarborough. A lot of people didn't have holidays, but my mum and dad worked very hard and we did go on holiday every year, so we were lucky really.

I always wanted to be a nurse - I can't ever remember wanting to be anything else. But because of circumstances, I didn't do my training until I was 33. I had children young, the marriage didn’t work out and I was left on my own with three children to bring up. So eventually at 33 I did remarry and I said to my husband that I wanted to do my nursing training, and he said “If that’s what you want to do love, do it.”

So I trained at Jimmy’s and I qualified as a state-registered nurse. I think one of the most outstanding memories probably in my lifetime was going down to get my results, because the postman was on strike at the time, so we had to go down and get our results. And they said “You've passed,” and I thought “That's my lifetime’s dream!”

During my career, after my husband died – he was only young, only 38, and he died about two years after I qualified - I went to work in Edinburgh. I'd been working in a young disabled unit and I never got on medication, but I found that things were just getting too much and I wanted to move, ‘cause I’d also lost my mother at the same time. I worked in the Cheshire home in Edinburgh, but I found that although I liked my job, there was too much interference with management.

So I went back in the NHS and I came back to Leeds, worked at Chapel Allerton on nights, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and then I went to work in A&E in Malta for a year, then back to Jimmy's and finished up in paediatric oncology before I retired.

I've never smoked and rarely drank, so I do enjoy my travel. One special time was when I went to see my granddaughter, Vic, in Australia and did a coach tour from Wallaroo up to Darwin where she lived, about 5000 miles through the outback and the North End, as they call it. So that was pretty amazing.

Antarctica was also really fabulous - we were down in Antarctica itself for about 6 days and we saw one ship in the distance, that was all. It was right at the end of the season that we went.

The greatest moments I think in my life were when I found out I’d passed my exams, and the other was when Vic graduated. She was the first one in my extended family to ever go to university, because people didn’t. And I might get a bit emotional here, but she got a first class honours and it was all the sweeter because a few months before I’d had breast cancer. I was OK, luckily they caught it early and I only had a lumpectomy and radiotherapy, but I really sincerely believe it was looking forward to Vic’s graduation – I thought “I am gonna be there!”

It was so lovely to see her get that. She’s now working in Brisbane with young offenders, helping to keep them out of youth custody and to help them get back on their feet when they get released, and of course we're all very proud of her. As I said, she was the first one to go to University. None of my nephews, nieces, cousins, anybody did. And I was left on my own with three young children, with a husband who wouldn’t pay maintenance.

So I did have to struggle a bit, which is why I couldn't do my nursing because obviously I was on my own and I knew I’d have to do nights and things. But it all came good in the end, and I have a very good relationship with all my children.