Tea lady Teddy calls time on Bishop's Castle hospital role at 92
Teddy Burton has been a familiar and friendly face to patients at a Shropshire hospital as a volunteer tea lady for the past 20 years.
But Mrs Burton, at the ripe old age of 92, has hung up her tea cosy and handed over her last cuppa at Bishop's Castle Community Hospital.
The pensioner, a resident at sheltered housing scheme Abbeyfield House in the town, took up the volunteer role in 1992.
She said: "I had been looking after my only granddaughter and when she became grown up I was looking for something to take up my time.
"I have been doing it for 21 years and I have loved every minute.
"But I always said I would stop when it didn't feel safe, and just lately I've been a bit shaky when carrying the teapot, so it was time to call it a day.
"Age catches up with you unfortunately. I used to volunteer at the library in Bishop's Castle as well, helping to stack the shelves. But I had to give that up too because I couldn't reach the bottom shelf.
"I will still be going in to help load the trays at the hospital and I will help to train up the new volunteers who come in to take over from me. I don't know what I will do with the extra time – knitting probably!"
Sandra Bradbury, ward manager at the hospital, said Mrs Burton had come in faithfully every single day since she started to serve hot drinks in the morning to patients.
She said she would be sorely missed and staff presented her with a bouquet of flowers as a thank you to mark her service.
Mrs Bradbury said: "Teddy has been a wonderful and dedicated addition to the team here at Bishop's Castle Community Hospital. It is a real help to have volunteers to do the teas here, as it is at any community hospital in the county, and the patients really appreciate it too.
"We are all going to miss her smiling face, wonderful personality and fabulous cups of tea."
"As well as serving the tea she would also dutifully go in and lay the table before dinner. She is fairly well known around town and people who were in the hospital from Bishop's Castle would recognise her. It can be a stressful time and I think for them it was good to see a familiar face for a cuppa and a natter.
"She has already told me she is coming back to train the new ones up and we have had a couple of inquiries, so I don't think we have seen the last of her."
