Hospital husband and wife team notch up 90 years of NHS service including in Fenland

There are some great husband-and-wife teams out there—the Prince and Princess of Wales, Posh and Becks, and George and Amal Clooney.

Now North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust is celebrating its own hard-working, dedicated couple who have notched up an incredible 90 years of NHS service between them.

John and Sandy Ellington met at work over four decades ago and have been familiar faces around the Trust ever since.

They have each been presented with a 45-year-long service award from the Trust to honour their fantastic achievement.

Medical equipment manager John and medical equipment co-ordinator Sandy work both at the Trust’s community sites in Doddington, Wisbech, and Ely and at its main sites in Peterborough, Stamford, and Huntingdon.

The couple began their NHS career in the year that Margaret Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister, the Sony Walkman was launched and Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” topped the charts.

The two met whilst training – but not as colleagues.

John was a patient having suffered a motorbike accident and Sandy walked by at the point of him grabbing the doctor by the tie and shouting in pain!

He asked her out and they were married a year later in 1982. They worked together for the next 30 years in operating theatres.

Having completed her nurse’s entrance exam in 1979, Sandy did her training at Peterborough District Hospital, starting as an enrolled nurse in theatres.

As a child, Sandy wanted to become a nurse.

John passed his entrance exam for the Royal Navy at age 15 and joined as a medical assistant. Upon leaving the Navy a year later, he applied for a job as a theatre technician and joined Peterborough District Hospital after completing his training.

In 2009 John was offered a position as a full-time medical equipment manager.

After a serious injury to his ankle a year later, John came back to create a Trust-wide medical equipment team, a team which he continues to manage today.

Working alongside John, one of Sandy’s main roles is to cover the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) wireless system tracking of the location of the Trust’s medical equipment.

The hi-tech system allows live computer screen tracking, and also shows drug fridge temperatures, and provides instant alerts if temperatures stray out of range.

A stand-out time in their career was in 2020, when they were both faced with the challenges of the pandemic. Sandy relocated from radiology and took over the very important job of monitoring the oxygen levels across the Trust twice a day during Covid.

Alongside procuring equipment all over the country, with hundreds of items coming in to manage, both retiring and coming back just a week later to continue their vital work to help the Trust function over this unprecedented time.

Sandy said: “It’s been 45 years this year at the Trust and I’m still loving every minute.”

John added: “This hospital has given me everything in life – happiness, wealth, security and a wife. You don’t need anything else.”