TRIBUTES have been paid to a “loved and trusted” doctor who has retired after caring for patients in a North-East village for 35 years.

Dr Gillian Williams, who was born into a medical family in Middlesbrough, has retired from Rockliffe Court Surgery, in Hurworth-on-Tees, near Darlington.

Her father, Glyn Williams, was a GP, and her mother, who practised under her maiden name of Noel Hay, worked in community medicine.

Dr Williams succeeded Dr Mark Robson at Hurworth’s GP practice in October 1984, joining Dr Ian Bagshaw, in the days when surgeries were run from the back of his home overlooking the village green.

It was Dr Bagshaw who introduced Dr Williams to her husband, Dr Kenneth McKeown, who was a GP in Darlington, and the son of a surgeon of the same name.

Over the next few years, the number of patients grew from 2,000 to 5,000, and a modern surgery was built at Rockliffe Court, with the official opening carried out by Lady Masham of Ilton, on October 28, 1989.

In 2016, the practice was named in the top ten doctors’ surgeries in the country.

Dr Williams, who went part-time a year later, said she had decided to retire after having had time to reflect while recovering from a hip replacement operation.

“I have enjoyed a very happy and fulfilled career in a beautiful village and I am especially grateful to Ian Bagshaw for his faith in me, along with his wife, Victoria, who was practice manager,” she said.

“I will always remember how welcome I was made to feel, and I would like to thank all of my former colleagues and patients for their support and kindness.”

Dr Bagshaw, who retired in 2011, said: “There is no doubt that the arrival of Dr Gillian Williams proved to be of enormous benefit to myself and the people of Hurworth.

“She has provided an outstanding medical service to her patients, and it is true to say they all loved, trusted and respected her high standards of exemplary medical care.

“Examples of altruism are very evident in the current environment but Dr Williams was a true exponent of this principle. It is often said of a person that they will be a hard act to follow – never was there a truer idiom to describe Gillian Williams.”

Dr Williams plans to spend her retirement travelling, helping to renovate her house in Hurworth, reading, walking, gardening and learning Spanish.

She and her husband have two children: Jonathon, 29, who is a junior doctor in Oxford; and Rachael, 27, who is a trainee GP in Bristol.