Tributes paid to nurse after disease battle (From Wiltshire Times)

Tributes paid to nurse after disease battle

3:51pm Thursday 20th July 2006 in Bradford By Helen Thomas

AFTER a lifetime helping others community nursing sister Valerie Maidment died at the age of 50 in her husband's arms.

Mrs Maidment, of Bradford on Avon, was diagnosed with Motor Neurone disease in August but lost her fight against the disease last Wednesday, 26 years to the day she met her naval engineer husband Phil.

He said she would be desperately missed by everyone who knew her and described his wife as an incredible woman who was kind and gentle.

"She was a service wife and for 18 of the 25 years we spent living together I was often away but she never complained. She managed the house, her job, the children and I don't know how I'll do everything without her," he said.

Mrs Maidment loved her job as a nurse and trained in Glasgow, where she grew up.

She worked as a midwife and later a sister and most recently worked as a community nursing sister in Adcroft and Bradford Road surgeries in Trowbridge.

She was forced to take extended sick leave when she was diagnosed last year and was due to retire at the end of the month.

Mr Maidment said: "She loved the patients and being with people and helping them. The thought she was making a difference meant everything.

"When I was based in Plymouth she was a district nursing sister and I think we had about 13 children born in the back of various estate cars, which she delivered.

"She was hugely committed to nursing but desperately frustrated on the management front and increasing costs.

"She was deeply concerned about the younger nurses' funding and their growing struggle."

The couple enjoyed being able to travel and spent the last year visiting several countries across the world, including a visit to Tanzania where their 19-year-old daughter Lyndsay was completing her gap year working in an orphanage.

"Even though it was becoming increasingly difficult, first on crutches and then in a wheelchair, she wouldn't have it any other way," Mr Maidment said.

"We only came back from Portugal the Thursday before she died. Whatever she wanted to do she did it."

Mrs Maidment also leaves a son Matthew, 17, and many friends.