A FORMER Cardigan nurse awarded the British Empire Medal in the New Year’s Honours List has spoken of her pride at having served in the town’s hospital for the past 20 years.

Jennifer Ladd, an emergency nurse practitioner at the Minor Injury Unit at Cardigan Hospital until her retirement last September, received the BEM for services to Ceredigion and Hywel Dda University Health Board.

And the 64-year-old mum-of-one told the Cambrian News that she initially mistook the official letter of notification as a tax return form!

“I just could not believe it,” she recalled. “My reaction was one of total disbelief – I had to read the letter several times for it to actually sink in.”

She later discovered that her name had been put forward by a couple of her former colleagues.

“We were a close team down at the hospital so this award is really for all of us who have worked in the unit,” said Jennifer.

“There were a lot of difficulties along the way but we all loved the work and desperately wanted to keep the unit open because it was our baby.

“The unit has recently taken on three new members of staff so I feel I have left it in good hands and that it will really take off in the months and years ahead.”

A nurse since 1974, Jennifer – who lives in Llangoedmor with husband Dafydd – says she witnessed many changes during her long career in the profession.

“When I started it was a question of rising through the ranks to ward sister and then getting into management,” she said.

“Now there are far more opportunities for specialist nurses – in other words many more ways of becoming really expert.

“What gives me great pride is the thought that in my own modest way I played a pioneering part in the development of the emergency nurse practitioner’s role.”

Jennifer will receive her BEM from Lord-Lieutenant of Dyfed Sara Edwards prior to attending a Buckingham Palace garden party in the summer.

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