Goodbye Benjamin Button

A member of staff who colleagues referred to as NHS Forth Valley’s answer to Benjamin Button – she gets younger every year! – celebrated her retirement recently after 43 years with the NHS.

Clinical Nurse Manager for Eating Disorder Service/Substance Misuse Services, Annette Gilmour, who started her career as a mental health nurse on the Bellsdyke site in 1973, was described as having a ‘genuine passion for all her patients.’

She subsequently moved to Edinburgh to train as a general nurse, but in 1979, returned to mental health nursing and became a community psychiatric nurse at Woodilee Hospital. In 1985, she came back to Forth Valley and since then has worked in a variety of roles. She has been a Community Psychiatric Nurse, Liaison Nurse Specialist, Clinical Nurse Manager within Stirling Community Mental Health Services, Team Leader for Stirling DBT Service, Clinical Nurse Manager and Clinician for the Eating Disorder Service and latterly the Clinical Nurse Manager for Substance Misuse Services.

Annette, known to be the life and soul of the party wherever she goes, received messages of congratulation from several colleagues unable to attend her farewell lunch, including good wishes from as far afield as Tenerife, Germany and Zambia.

A much deserved thank you was extended to Annette for her commitment to NHS Forth Valley Mental Health Services.