Staff nurse Janet Phillips worked in Sully during the 1970s. She remembers it as a very happy period of her life and it was there that she met and married Dr Keith Wong. Later they moved to
New Zealand.
Tragically he died of cancer while only 45 years of age and Janet brought his ashes back to Sully where they are scattered in
the grounds within view of his old cardiac unit.
“I was 28 in the first one photo taken in the
National Heart Hospital, London where I worked in the pediatric cardiac unit and
I am 59 in the second photo – taken in Australia where I live now.
“ It must be the must be the good Welsh genes!!”
Janet says:
"I trained as a nurse at Llandough Hospital and
visited Sully Hospital during my training. I knew that I wanted to work there
so when I qualified in 1974, after my obligatory 6 months as a junior staff
nurse at Llandough, I applied for a position at Sully.
“I started there on Powys Ward.. the thoracic
medical ward...48 beds. This is where I met Dr. Foreman. He was a lovely man. I
remember him telling me that he came from Takapuna. It meant very little to me
at the time but later on I met and married a New Zealand cardiology registrar,
Dr Keith Wong who came to Sully.
He
was registrar to Dr Davies from 1976-78.
Later
we went to live in New Zealand, and I visited Takapuna and thought of
Dr.Foreman.
I was asked to transfer to the cardiology ward
Morgannwg as a senior staff nurse and there I spent some of the happiest years of
nursing career. There was an enormous camaraderie amongst the staff. Dr LG
Davies was the senior cardiologist and he was an amazing clinician and a modest
and charming man.
I lived in the nurses’ home while I worked at
Sully. I was always very aware how fortunate I was to live somewhere where I
woke up to the sound of the sea and the birds every morning. The ward patients
also had this. What a wonderful place.
I left Sully in 1978 and moved to London and
then to New Zealand. My husband became a consultant cardiologist in Christchurch.
NZ.
“Sadly, at the early age of 45, he died after a
short and sharp battle with cancer. I met him at Sully and completed the circle
by bringing his ashes back to scatter in the grounds of Sully Hospital, within
view of the old cardiac catheter suite where he spent so much of his time.
Sully Hospital will always remain in my
memories.
It was indeed a very happy hospital. Everyone
knew everyone (and what they were up to!).
In
2007 Janet moved to Kalgoorlie, western Australia where she now lives
with her second husband who works as an anaesthetist. And she has
retired from nursing.
Meanwhile her children still live in the UK and her daughter lives in Barry.
Janet says:" I return regularly to visit them."
Thank you Janet for sharing your story with us.
