SYLVIA Bradley is still going strong after half a century in nursing.

The Portlander has clocked up 50 years of caring for others in the profession.

Great grandmother Sylvia, 67, said she has been a nurse for so long because she ‘likes doing things for other people’.

She now works for the Poundbury office of Harmoni as a forensic nurse practitioner based at Weymouth Police Station.

“Most of the nurses I know retire at 60. It really depends what sort of nursing you are doing.

“I do 36 hours a week and work 12 hour shifts and I will keep going for as long as I can and as long as I’m not causing a problem,” she said.

Besides nursing, Sylvia is also a Portland town councillor and will become mayor next year.

She began working as a nurse for the Dudley area health authority.

Sylvia said: “I was inspired by my friend whose mother was a district nurse. I was in the St John Ambulance brigade when I was 10 years old. I did general nursing at Burton Road Hospital. I’ve done all different sorts of nursing – I worked at a sanatorium and I’ve nursed children. I remember every tube being used more than once, bandages being washed and things being sterilised to be used again.”

Sylvia has also worked in operating theatres and in A&E departments.

She left the West Midlands for Dorset and worked at a nursing agency, Dorset County Hospital and nursing homes in Weymouth.

She started out earning £8 a month and remembers using an iron lung on her patients. Sylvia says every death of a patient has an impact on a nurse.

“I remember a really handsome lad who was in kidney failure. There was no dialysis in those days.

“He used to come in periodically to have a blood transfusion.

“One time he pulled me into the bath tub – everyone liked him for his good humour. We heard that he got married and had six months with his wife before he died.”

Staff at Harmoni presented Sylvia with a bouquet of flowers for the half century milestone.

Business development director Carol Lawrence-Parr said Sylvia’s achievement was ‘remarkable’.

“Sylvia is summed up by everyone saying that if they were poorly they would like to be nursed by Sylvia.

“We are so lucky at Harmoni for Health having someone like Sylvia working for us. It’s not just about experience, it’s about passion and caring for patients.”

Over the years Sylvia has looked after thousands of patients.

“To me, nursing was a vocation. I became more dedicated to caring for people.

“If you can’t do something for somebody else there’s something wrong with you.

“I’ve never really pushed myself to think of packing it in. If I can’t look after patients, then I will always be looking after other people.”