A FORMER Helme Chase sister was inspired by the launch of Gazette's Helme Chase 50 Club to share her experience on the ward.

Sister Anne Blundell moved from Plymouth to Kendal after finishing her midwifery training, aged 23.

She spent from 1966 to June 1968 at the maternity hospital, leaving for a year to work in South Africa and returning in 1969.

"My memories of Helme Chase are some of the happiest of my life," Ms Blundell, 75, said. "It was a wonderful work place for all of us, the doctors, nurses, ancillary staff and of course Mums, Dads and their babies.

"We were one big happy family, working hard but socialising together too."

She recalled Christmasses as the hospital, with one doctor coming to the site dressed as Father Christmas and on horseback and time spent picking fresh fruit to be used by the kitchen staff for lunches.

"It's difficult to describe the joy of being part of such a special time in a families' life," she said. "When I was a teenager my own GP in Wigan said to me: 'do go and be a midwife it's the most wonderful career for a girl' - although of course they now have male midwives too.

"The next time I saw him was at Helme Chase in the midst of delivering one of his patients from Staveley. He had no idea that I had ended up as a midwife and was quite overwhelmed."

Ms Blundell, who now lives in Warton, delivered 265 boys and 304 girls at Helme Chase, including 12 sets of twins and one set of triplets.

"The smallest baby I delivered weighed 1lb 10ozs he survived in our little room with three incubators and went on to be a healthy strapping lad whose head I later searched in my role as school nurse," she said. "The largest baby I delivered was a boy weighing 12lbs."

And after Ms Blundell left the hospital in 1973, her career at the hospital followed her through her life.

"I kept in contact with Helme Chase throughout my working life," she said. "When I was health visiting, I saw some of the same mums and was teaching some of the babies that I delivered at Kendal College."

And although she spent some time at other, larger hospitals, Ms Blundell said that nothing compared to the warm and friendly atmosphere Helme Chase.

"There was tremendous team work and camaraderie," she said. "It was like a big happy family really. It was just absolutely wonderful.

"It was like a home from home."

l Were you born at Helme Chase Maternity Hospital in 1968? Do you want to join the Helme Chase at 50 Club? Send a photograph of yourself as a baby and as you are now to mike.addison@kendal.newsquest.co.uk Please include some details of your life (schools, jobs and so on) and any comments about the former maternity hospital.