Our Staff Stories

"I finally decided to go to a service at St Jude's this morning. As soon as I told them where I work, they invited me to speak..." 

In 2011 Mildmay sent a former colleague (Lynne Hulka) and me to a project in Ukraine to facilitate some HIV teaching.  At the time I was studying for a formal qualification which would enable me to train health care workers and nurses, and as part of the college course, I had a to write a weekly reflection. Here is the reflection I wrote about my experience in Irpen, Ukraine.

"I have pleasure in forwarding to you the enclosed booklet. This came into my possession on the passing of my aunt. She often spoke to me of the time that she worked at the Mildmay Hospital when she was a young woman, and the nuns that she worked with, who some I believe she kept in touch with over the years."

Sister Eunice was 96 when she died in early 2021. Her great-nephew Alastair gave the tribute to his aunt at her Thanksgiving Service on 9 March 2021, from which I learned a lot about her background.

"I worked at Mildmay for a short period of time in 1980-81. The highlight of my time there was working with the children who had special needs. It was such a joyful place to be, seeing the responses of each of the children as they grew in their own way, receiving the love and care given to them."

"I first met Helen Taylor Thompson when she invited me to join the Steering Committee she chaired that led the petition and campaign to re-open the Mildmay Mission Hospital after its closure by the NHS in 1982."

I did my training at Mildmay from 1954-57. I spent 3 years at Mildmay with the middle one at the Royal London, where life was very different. I said, 'even the bedpans were a different shape!'

Margaret Kerin, came over from Ireland to train to be a nurse at Mildmay Hospital in 1942. Unlike many such women who came over, she returned to Ireland in 1948 and went to work at the Dublin Medical Mission.

Kathleen was involved with Mildmay since the late 1980s. Kathleen kept the papers of the Friends of Mildmay, the Mildmay Trust, the Mildmay Council and Islington community contact for very many years.

Sharon first started at Mildmay in 1993 as a temporary secretary working for the chaplains, but after walking in and seeing the hospital for the very first time, she knew immediately she “wanted to stay, and it has been 26 years since that moment”.

"She used to regale us with stories about Mildmay. She did her training as a nurse at Mildmay. They were good stories and clearly impressed us with the work you were doing."

"On hearing about the death of Eva Heymann, who died peacefully in the early hours of 12th February 2021, in her 94th year, I remembered the time I had invited her back to Mildmay."

Helen was elected to the board of the Mildmay Mission Hospital in 1952 and afterwards sat on a number of Government NHS committees. She later fought the closure of the Mildmay Hospital and became its Chair when it reopened as the first hospice in Europe for people living with AIDS in 1988.

We first heard about the amazing Bert Miller when his daughter, Phyllis, contacted us. She had seen that we were asking for photos and stories from former staff and patients on our website and wanted to share the photos her father had saved from a skip outside Mildmay. Her husband Stan sent over the photos and told us some of Bert's story.

"I worked there on Coventry Ward with the children who were severely disabled. I was lucky enough to have been working on the ward in the long hot summer of 1976, when we had a large paddling pool on the roof and I was in the pool and the nurses were bringing the children out one at a time for me to exercise them...

Mary Richards entered training at the Mildmay Mission Hospital in April 1931 and left after completing her training and receiving her certificate in May 1934.