When health visitor Chris Fuller started working in Peterborough four decades ago, Bretton was in its inception.

As more and more Londoners moved into the emerging suburb, dealing with the condition that came to be known as New Town Blues became a key challenge for those working in community care.

Chris, who worked for Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust (CCS), retired this month - after 40 years as health visitor including 33 as a practice teacher. 

Chris said:  “Families had come from London into this new place, and it did not matter whether you were rich or poor, a professional or a labourer,  they suffered from New Town Blues – a kind of depression that affects those who move away from all that is familiar in their lives.”

Chris’s NHS career started at the age of 16 as a cadet nurse in an Oxfordshire  cottage hospital. It was followed by two years working as a district nurse in London, after qualifying as a registered nurse, before moving to Sawtry with husband Nigel, 65, and joining Peterborough Health Authority in May 1975.

 “I was attached to a practice in north Peterborough,” she said. “The practice population was about 25 per cent Asian in those days. We did not have any interpreting services. Everything had to be done by sign language and through demonstrations."

“It was difficult, but the people were lovely. They were so welcoming.”

In 1984 Chris, from Church Street, in Sawtry,joined the Jenner Health Centre, in Whittlesey, where she  remained  until 2013.Then she began training student health visitors in a different role as a 'roving practice teacher' .

The NHS has been the 64-year- old’s life and there is no other career she would rather have chosen, even though it has  “changed beyond recognition” since she first joined.

Development assessments, new births, immunisations, parent craft classes in association with midwives, running baby clinics as well as teaching and training health visitors were among the routine duties.

 “When you see people at ante natal  classes, the  new birth visit and subsequent checks and immunisations you get to know them and you acquire many  skills in the process,” she said.

 “When people who have come to you for help come back to say ‘it’s thanks to you’ that I was able to deal with this or that, it’s the best you can get from a job.

“You feel that you are being useful. Health visiting is a lot about listening to people. You need to be aware of the impact you have on people’s lives.

"It's had its challenges, but I still believe it is the best choice of career I could have made.

“It’s  been a real privilege.”