Half a century of caring for others

The 74-year-old worked with drug addicts and prostitutes in the early part of her 50-year career.

And on her retirement Mrs Braybrooke bemoaned the bureaucracy which is holding back many people working in social care.

The grandmother-of-six, from Clifton Hampden, near Abingdon, retired this week.

During her long career, she worked with troubled youths in East London before moving to work in community hospitals.

Mrs Braybrooke said often people in other areas of her profession were held back by red tape, and added: “We were usually patch based in the old days.

“We took full professional responsibility, and were able to prevent a lot of children being received into care.

“We worked with the same families for several years – there were few changes of workers and there was excellent supervision.

“For instance, if you look at the Baby Peter situation, it is probably not very politically correct now, but families in certain areas would tell you what was going on in another family and you were able to work with that.

“That wouldn’t really happen today.”

Mrs Braybrooke, whose husband Marcus is a retired vicar of the Baldon villages, began work in Hackney immediately after leaving London University in 1958.

Later, after taking a postgraduate course at Bath University, she worked in several community hospitals in Somerset, Avon and Wiltshire, before moving with her husband and two children Rachel and Jeremy to Clifton Hampden in 1994.

She then took up her final role, working part-time with kidney patients at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford.

Mrs Braybrooke said she had dealt with drug users and prostitutes and once found out a group of troubled youths she worked with had burned their youth club down – but said the job had given her complete satisfaction.

She said: “I’ve loved my job. I have been very blessed in my life.

“What has kept me going over the years is truly believing there’s good in everyone.

“It’s just a matter of finding it.”

awilliams@oxfordmail.co.uk