NEWS | Jackie and Ian retire after a lifetime in the labs at Hereford County Hospital

When Jackie and Ian Hancock met as fresh-faced starters on their first day at the County Hospital in October 1979, little did they know the chemistry was there for romance.

Within a handful of years the pair, who have worked in the Haematology and then in later years, the Blood Sciences team all their working lives, found love in the labs and tied the knot.

This week, two children and 42 years later, they’re hanging up their lab coats for the last time as they head off for retirement after a lifetime working at the hospital clocking up an amazing 84 years between them.

In the year they started, transistor radios rang out with songs such as “Hot stuff,” “Ring my bell,” and “Good times.”

It was also the time when samples were checked into the labs by hand on request forms.

“The difference is amazing. Everything was manual and done by hand. Things have changed so much over the years you would hardly recognise these as the same labs today,” Ian commented.

“And one of the other big differences is the amount of work we get through and the fact that we are now running a 24/7 service working night shifts whereas before it was an on-call service.”

“There’s no doubt that the advances in science and tighter regulations mean the service is so much better for patients now that it ever has been, added Jackie Haematology section manager”

As they head into retirement, it will be the people and the faces that they’ll miss the most – although the colleagues they leave behind won’t be able to forget them too quickly as their son, Matthew, continues the family tradition and continues to work in the blood sciences lab.

“We’ve made lots of good friends over the years and we’re really going to miss them, but we know it’s time to retire and we shall still see them from time to time as we’ll be helping out on the Bank until they recruit to fill our positions,” said Ian, Blood Bank section manager