A NURSE who turned to writing after a chronic health problem forced her to leave the profession has seen her first book hit the shelves.

Gill Davy-Bowker from Dorchester starting writing on four pages of A4 for her then ten-year-old son and it ended up as a published novel.

She started writing at the age of about six and used to write Christmas shows when she worked as a staff nurse at Dorset County Hospital.

After leaving the profession due to ill health and being inspired to write by her son Gill, who suffers from brittle asthma and bronchiectasis, said she did not dare dream that her writings would one day result in a published novel.

She said: “He told me to write a story one evening and I started writing and thought – this could turn into a book.”

Gill said the book ‘grew up a bit much for her son’ as it took shape and is aimed at an older audience but he was still the only one to know many of the novel’s secrets as she was writing it.

Her book The Meltdown of a Banker’s Wife tells the story of a former nurse whose husband’s world implodes when the banking crisis hits.

Gill said: “The banking crisis of 2008 really rocked me, that my own country could just go bankrupt overnight, it was the sort of thing that could happen only once in a lifetime.

“I think I wrote it partly to calm my nerves and to calm other people’s nerves a bit.”

The family setting makes the book easy to relate to and the comedy side to it offers some light relief.

Gill said: “I wanted the book to be like a friend between two covers, to carry around with them and make them feel a bit better about life.”

She added that feedback so far on the book had been very positive.

Gill said she wanted to thank all those who have helped her and given her the confidence and tenacity to publish the book.

She said: “Friends and family obviously played a great part, but I also wanted to mention the doctors and nurses for all their hard work at my doctor’s practice, Dorset County Hospital, Southampton General Hospital, The Royal Brompton Hospital and at the day centre at Joseph Weld Hospice.”

The novel is dedicated to a fellow patient of Gill’s Tracy Anne Vincent, who passed away from lung cancer after urging her to write the book.

Gill said: “I promised her family that I would remember her in the book as part of my inspiration to get it done.”