A MUCH-loved and respected staff member has retired after 20 years of working at Okehampton Hospital.

Kay Cunliffe started working in the NHS in 1979 and was based in Okehampton from 1995. She worked as a nursing auxiliary and healthcare assistant from 1995 to 1998, based at the former Okehampton Castle Hospital in Castle Walk.

Kay was a physiotherapy assistant and technician since 1998, first at the Castle Hospital and then at the new site in Cavell Way after it opened in 2001. She worked with the musculoskeletal (MSK) physiotherapy and community rehabilitation teams in Okehampton and Moretonhampstead.

She ran groups, visited people in their own homes and supported patients in all the local residential and nursing homes.

She supported students, junior staff and senior members of the MSK physiotherapy and rehabilitation teams throughout her career in Okehampton.

Amy Souster, specialist physiotherapist in Okehampton for the Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust, said: 'Kay has been an invaluable member of the physio and rehab teams and she will be hugely missed by everyone she has worked with over the years.

'She is loved by staff and patients and is a trusted and respected person everywhere she goes. We will miss her terribly but wish her lots of enjoyment in her retirement.'

Kay plans to sped her retirement gardening, in her motor home and with her grandchildren and new puppy, Ted.

She plans to stay in contact with the Okehampton rehabilitation team and help out from time to time with exercise classes if the need arises.