VAUGHAN Haskins was more at risk than many of her patients as she did her rounds as a district nurse.

She toured Oxford visiting homes in Headington, Wood Farm and Old Marston in a dear old motor fit only for the scrapyard.

Mrs Haskins, of Kennington, writes: “I had been allocated a 1936 Morris 8. It had no brakes and I was told by my superintendent to tie them up with string.

“If you pressed the horn, the lights came on. There was no seat covering – I sat on the springs – but it was a dear old car. I called it Herbert and became very fond of him.”

One winter, she fitted a heating device to the windscreen to keep it clear of snow and ice and asked her employers, Oxfordshire County Council, to refund the 10s 6d cost. The council refused, saying it was a luxury, not a necessity.

She recalls the car getting stuck in 16ft high snowdrifts during the winter of 1964 and having to dig it out, and on another occasion, stepping back in a patient’s house and falling into a tin bath full of water.

These are some of many memories being shared by former staff as the National Health Service celebrates its 70th anniversary.

Jean Smith, of Headington, finally succeeded in joining the NHS 27 years after she first applied.

She was told she had “not enough experience” when she applied for a junior post at the Churchill Hospital. Later, applying to be a secretary at the John Radcliffe, she was told she had “too much experience”.

However, a newly-appointed consultant at the Churchill needed a personal secretary and was satisfied she had the “right amount of experience”.

Julie Aikenhead, of Risinghurst, worked as an auxiliary nurse and one of her favourite jobs was bed bathing patients.

She remembers washing and shaving one unkempt man and being confronted by a woman screaming: “That’s my husband!” Fearing the worst, she was relieved to hear the delighted wife say her husband looked “more like his old self”.

Shirley Smith, of Kingston Blount, visited patients in their homes as a district nursing sister.

She recalls: “I met many people who had extraordinary tales to tell – a pilot who flew a Wellington bomber, an Army major who thought a nearby Scout camp was the enemy approaching, a GP who did his rounds on horseback, patients whose toilet was a hut down the garden and a patient who had a 10-year pacemaker at 95 – his consultant came to his 100th birthday party.”

Mrs Haskins, Mrs Aikenhead and the two Mrs Smiths are members of the Oxford branch of the NHS Retirement Fellowship, whose 150 members enjoy social activities, including coach trips, walks, lunches and monthly meetings. They are part of a national fellowship with 10,000 members.

Membership is open to anyone who worked in the NHS. Contact secretary Clare Flanagan on 01865 761677 or clare949flanagan@btinternet.com for more details. Members’ memories will feature in a booklet by the fellowship’s outings officer, Andrew Moss, to be published later this year.