A 22-year career in mental healthcare is coming to an end for community nurse Lynne Andrews.

During her time with Suffolk Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, and its predecessors, Lynne has cared for hundreds of people across the county – from adolescents to older people.

For the last eight years, she has been with the Wickham Market-based community team of nurses, occupational therapists, social workers and doctors, who focus on helping people, recover from periods of ill health in their own homes.

“I will be really sad to leave everybody here because we have been together such a long time and they are a really nice lot of people,” said Lynne, who is retiring on Friday 11th January.

Lynne, who lives in Debenham, said she started her career as a nursing assistant at the former St Audrey’s Hospital in Melton, near Woodbridge, “at the ripe old age of 35”.

She was the first ever student to gain a place at the St Elizabeth Hospice in Ipswich and worked for a while at Minsmere House, the ward for older patients with mental health problems on the Ipswich Hospital site.

She then moved to Hightrees, a residential facility for adolescents in Ipswich, until it closed in 1993, when she transferred to the Woodbridge community team, which later became the Wickham Market team.

Her colleague, community nurse Derek Jones, said: “Lynne will be sorely missed. She is always ready to help out and is there for everybody. She has great empathy, is great fun and has a heart as big as the ocean.”