In celebration of nurse’s day, Anne Motley shares her family story which incorporates a deep history with the NHS.

This International Nurses Day, I want to share my nursing story. My name is Karen Hampson, I am 49 years old and born in Radcliffe, Manchester. I have had dystonia, a movement disorder which causes tremors, spasms and incredible pain night and day, since I was born. This causes me extreme struggles with day to day tasks and personal care.

My name is Mog Heraghty and my day job is the associate director of quality and patient safety in the Nursing directorate.

As COVID emerged in February 2020, I began supporting the community swabbing team in London. When this was stepped down in early March, I proactively redeployed myself to the Acute and Rehab directorate, with the support of my line manager Diane Searle, director of nursing. The reason for this was that I am a mental health nurse by background, this was a high risk critical service and I thought my skills would best be used there.