A HEADLEY Down nurse with 50 years’ experience on the wards and still working, celebrated her 72nd birthday the same week the National Health Service celebrated its 72nd anniversary.

Catherine Keeton, a scrub nurse at Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust, was born in 1948 in Zimbabwe, and says she knew from the age of five that it was her life’s calling to help care for and treat unwell people.

She said: “I love to learn, to communicate with patients and to observe human healing. I believe – and I hope this is true – that my greatest contribution has been my practice of compassion.

“The reason I still choose to work is because I don’t see it as a job, but as a life passion.”

After graduating in nursing and midwifery in 1970, she began treating trauma wounds and diseases including polio, tuberculosis and malaria during the Rhodesian Bush War.

In 1972, she moved to South Africa and began working on the front-line of the HIV crisis.

After having two children and a break from nursing, Catherine returned to her calling – but in 1985 she was caught up in the Amanzimtoti town bombing.

On December 23 a terrorist bomb exploded in a shopping mall in the small town near Durban, South Africa, killing five people and injuring another 40, among them Catherine and her children.

She said: “My children weren’t too badly injured but I suffered some hearing loss and at the age of 50 I emigrated to the UK.”

Here, her 22-year love affair and career with the NHS started.

In her current role at Royal Surrey Hospital, Catherine helps care for patients before, during and after surgery.

Catherine, who has worked at the Guildford hospital for 12 years, said: “I really enjoy working here, as it is a friendly and diverse place of work.”

Trust chief executive Louise Stead said: “This has been the most challenging year in NHS history and now more than ever we understand how invaluable our amazing colleagues are.

“Catherine’s story is inspirational and her 50-year nursing career is something we all really admire and applaud.

“I would like to take this time to say a huge thank you to all my colleagues here, and across the wider NHS, for all their dedication, care and compassion.”