AFTER nearly 40 years of helping other people, physiotherapist Eileen Polley has brought down the curtain on her career with the NHS.

Friends and colleagues celebrated her retirement at a gathering at Northallerton's Children's Centre, in Brompton Road, where she worked for Hambleton and Richmondshire Primary Care Trust.

Ms Polley trained as a physiotherapist in 1966, working in Oxford and then Newcastle until 1972.

She then worked in Switzerland before returning to England to work in Manchester in 1985 as a senior in paediatrics.

Ms Polley moved to Ashington in a similar role until 1989, when she went to work at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, where the Children's Centre is based.

She said: "My first priority is a holiday in Ireland. I'll then be looking forward to doing a bit more walking, and perhaps some woodwork. I would also like to return to the centre to do some voluntary work."

The Friarage's head of physiotherapy, Anne Alder, said: "Eileen has been absolutely dedicated to her work with children and the paediatric teams.

"The service, her patients and their families will miss her very much. We all wish her a very well-earned and happy retirement."