‘Wonderful’ Lymington nurse Susan Moss dies days before 40-year NHS service award

A LYMINGTON hospital nurse died at the age of 58 just days before she was due to receive an NHS award for 40 years of devoted service.

Susan Moss, who lived in the town, never knew she was up for the accolade when she passed away just a week before it was to be presented.

Her sister Alison Huckle said: “She had no idea about the award. She would have been thrilled to have received it.

“But her reward was always the thanks she got from patients and even the doctors and nurses who worked with her. That was enough for her.”

Susan worked for 23 years at Lymington hospital where she was a much-loved figure.

Alison said she has been “absolutely overwhelmed by the outpouring of love” that people have shown towards her sister.

She added: “I have had so many messages from patients, nurses and even staff about how sad they are that she has died and how wonderful she was.

“A few doctors even praised her for helping them to become one, saying her passion for the medical profession and her excellence in what she did taught them a lot.”

Susan and Alison were born in Middlesbrough Yorkshire, with older brother Stephen, to parents Joyce and Gerry, who was a civil engineer, but spent a lot of their early lives in Stirling, Scotland. They later moved to Richmond, Surrey.

For Susan this was a difficult time as Alison said her bright ginger, curly hair made her a target for school bullies.

Alison said: “She did not do very well at school as a consequence. Susan had not set out to be a nurse, but mum and dad thought it would be a good job for her.

“In fact, it turned out to be so much more than that for Susan throughout her life. She fell in love with nursing from the beginning.”

Susan started as a state-enrolled nurse at West Middlesex Hospital in London then, during a conversion course to become a state-registered nurse, she moved to Queen Mary’s in Roehampton, London.

She also spent a few years at Kingston Hospital, Kingston-Upon-Thames.

In 1998 Susan followed her parents to Lymington, who had retired to the town three years earlier.

Here she became an integral member of the team at the hospital where she worked tirelessly until three years ago when she suffered a heart attack and started working two days a week.

In September last year she was diagnosed with cancer and had to go on sick leave.

Alison said: “It was the hardest thing for her, not being able to do her beloved nursing. She missed it so much.”

Describing her as “sociable, chatty and huge fun”, Alison said that her three children, Hannah, Laura and Alexander, “adored her”.

Alison said: “Hannah was due to have a baby and Susan was desperate to see it before she died. Hannah went into premature labour while Susan was in hospital.

“She sent photos through so that me and Susan were able to look at the first pictures of the baby together. It was such a special moment for us.

“Susan was over the moon to see the baby. A day later, she died.”Alison said that even in her last days Susan was thinking of her former colleagues: “She did not want to be a burden on anyone including the family, she was very stoic.

“Susan was someone who always thought of other people before herself, throughout her life.”

Susan’s funeral is at Test Valley crematorium on 22nd October. The family have asked for donations to Oakhaven Hospice.