Leeds chaplain keeps helping patients after 65 NHS years

demoduck.co.uk editorial team 2026-07-30 13:12 3 min read

A smiling hospital volunteer pushing a utility cart down a bright clinical corridor.

Denise joined the NHS in Leeds as an 18-year-old medical secretary in 1961. Sixty-five years later, she remains part of the Trust’s chaplaincy team and is preparing to take on another role supporting women’s and children’s services.

Her career has spanned medical secretarial work, patient advice, overseas healthcare requests, management and pastoral care. Along the way, she has continued to focus on helping patients and families feel less frightened during difficult moments.

From medical secretary to patient advocate

Denise’s first appointment was with Professor John Goligher, a leading surgeon whose advice shaped her approach to working with patients. He encouraged her to sit with people in outpatient clinics, get to know their families and make allowances for the fact that illness can affect how people behave.

That early experience offered a glimpse of the pastoral work she would later undertake. Denise also remembers the very different culture of hospital life in the 1960s, including a consultant theatrically throwing notes across a room for assistants to catch.

She left the Trust to raise her two children, at a time when formal maternity leave was not available in the way it is today. Denise returned in 1979 as a medical secretary in Plastic Surgery and was later named Medical Secretary of the Year for Yorkshire and the North East of England.

Leeds chaplain keeps helping patients after 65 NHS years

A career that continued after retirement

Around 2000, Denise became an officer in the Trust’s newly established Patient Advice and Liaison Service, helping patients and staff with informal concerns. She later joined the Overseas Team, investigating requests for NHS treatment from abroad, and became manager of the Overseas and Private Patients Service within a year.

Although she formally retired in 2013, Denise returned the following year as a volunteer visitor with the Chaplaincy Department. At 70, she went back to university to complete a master’s degree in NHS Chaplaincy in Health and Social Care.

She said the decision initially felt daunting, but ultimately became a matter of timing: “Although a little nervous, I felt it was the right time for me to do this, it was now or never!”

Supporting families through illness and loss

As an Honorary Chaplain, Denise provides pastoral, spiritual and religious care to patients, relatives and carers. Her work is offered to people of all faiths and to those with no faith, including people facing illness, pain, loss and grief.

Denise describes pastoral care as being present, listening without judgement and putting the patient’s needs first. Family Liaison Nurse Chloe Fisher said Denise brings calm and compassion to children and families facing overwhelming circumstances, while also checking on members of the nursing team.

Trust Chief Executive Brendan Brown said Denise’s service had made a lasting difference to patients, families and colleagues. Fisher added that Denise’s positive energy “brightens the unit every day” and that she regularly goes the extra mile for the people around her.

Denise’s next chaplaincy role in Leeds

Denise’s next confirmed step is a new chaplaincy role within the Trust’s Women’s and Children’s services. She has made clear that retirement is not currently part of her plans.

“I never think of retiring, as I enjoy my work too much,” she said. “It is a joy and a privilege to be a hospital chaplain, and I believe it was meant to be.”

Source: Leeds Teaching Hospitals News

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