A FORMER NHS nurse who set up her own business has celebrated the first birthday of her thriving health firm.

Champagne corks popped as Sheila Flood, from Chester-le-Street, marked a successful year in business as Number One Priority Health Care at Prospect Business Park, Leadgate, near Consett.

A former nurse at Dryburn Hospital, Durham, she left the NHS in 1978 to have a baby and never went back. After 23 years working for others in the private sector, she set up on her own last year, to capture the growing North-East market of occupational health care.