Sunny future awaits nursery nurse Linda

Linda Mellon, a familiar face on the children’s ward at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert, retired from her post recently as she prepares for a new life in Australia.

Friends, colleagues and well wishers said goodbye to Linda with flowers, personal gifts and a few Ozzie dollars.

Linda (55) said: “To see children coming in poorly and going out well is priceless.

“I’ve had a good career in Forth Valley with lots of laughter and lots of tears, but everybody in the ward is there for each other, through the good times and the bad times.

“I have worked with a great bunch of people who are not only colleagues but like a family whom you can trust and depend on.”

It has taken Linda, who is from Sauchie, two years of form filling to gain entry to Australia

where a son and daughter live in Perth, and another son near Melbourne.

A qualified nursery nurse, she began her NHS career as a play leader in the former Ward 2 at

Stirling Royal Infirmary and then applied for a nursery nurse post.

Linda’s daughter is a pre-school teacher at Perth University where Linda hopes to take on some supply work.