AFTER 50 years apart, you could forgive former nurses at the Radcliffe Infirmary for shedding a few tears at seeing their former colleagues.

The women met at the former hospital in Woodstock Road – the site of their nursing training half a century ago – on Saturday.

And they came from as far as Australia for the occasion.

Organiser Thelma Sanders, 67, from Headington, Oxford, said it was emotional to see so many familiar faces.

She said: “We started our training in January 1961, so this is our celebration of 50 years of close friendship.”

The women first met on New Year’s Eve 1960, on the first night of their nursing career.

But according to 69-year-old Maggie Bristow, there were no parties that night.

She said: “The sister insisted we had the lights out by 10.30pm, so that was a bit of a shock to the system.

“We then had 12 weeks of training together, learning how to make beds, put on our caps and learning how to do bed baths.

“It was strict, but so much fun – we had a sort of cohesiveness against the adversity.

“Plus we were very popular in Oxford, as not many women attended the university then.”

The group has been meeting every five years since 1989 and 17 out of the 34 who started in 1961 came on Saturday.

Mrs Sanders said they had lost touch with some, and two had died.

Jean Dart was visiting her old colleagues from Melbourne, Australia, and had not seen some for 50 years.

She said: “It’s the strangest thing to see people, but absolutely wonderful.”

Elaine McGuirk, from Edinburgh, was 17 when she started her training and said her time there had been “strict but fun”.

She said: “I remember we laughed a lot, but the rules were very regimented.

“It was very different to how nursing is now, as the regimentation has changed and patients used to stay a lot longer so you got to know them.”

Most of the women had stayed with the NHS until retirement.

Mrs Sanders, still a practicing nurse, said: “Nursing may have changed over the years but the intrinsic factor of good nurses who care is still there.

“I spent some time in hospital recently and it is reassuring to know that the hospitals are still full of efficient and caring nurses.”