Tributes to 'amazing' nurse whose patients 'were her life' for more than 50 years at South Tyneside District Hospital

Margaret Wood (nee Burnett Gibson) passed away on February 9 aged 78, in the hospital she had retired from just three years earlier.

The nurse and sister dedicated 55 years of her life to caring for people in the borough, the majority of which was spent in the Endoscopy department at South Tyneside District Hospital.

Despite her parents sending her off to secretarial school, Margaret found her purpose very early in life. She was so bored working in an office that she packed her bags and told them she was going to study nursing.

Starting at the former South Shields General in 1961 Margaret trained to be a midwife and became sister of the special care baby unit in 1965 at the age of just 24.

She spent a short period in London while she completed a postgraduate course before returning home and joining the team at the former Ingham Infirmary.

In 1982 after the birth of her two daughters, Joanne Arnold and Lisa Wood, she joined the Diagnostics Theatre at the then South Shields General, where she would stay until her retirement in 2016.

Margaret was made sister in 1984 but even after she stepped down from the role in 2001, consultants and nurses would continue to call her Sister Wood out of respect.

“People have said they were scared of her because she was very strict - everything had to be perfect for the patients, but she had a soft side too,” said daughter Lisa.

“She wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill nurse, it was her life. Her fellow nurses said she treated her patients as if they were her own family.

“She must have momentarily stepped into the lives of tens of thousands of people and in that moment she was there when they needed her, to be a calming influence and to offer hope and comfort.”

Margaret has been described as an “amazing” nurse with a “wicked sense of humour” and a Newcastle United supporter, had been known to tease Sunderland fans and play pranks on the doctors.

Hundreds gathered to pay their respects at the funeral on Monday, February 24 with the cortege taking a detour past the hospital where the Endoscopy team were there to wave goodbye.

A white rose, symbolising nursing, was laid by a colleague and friend as part of the ceremony, as tribute was paid to her lifelong dedication to the calling.

Lisa has praised Margaret’s former team who visited her every day during her last few weeks in the hospital, she said: “When we knew there was no hope they really stepped up because that’s what she would have done.”

When she wasn’t treating patients the grandmother-of-two loved wildlife and animals and a fundraising page was set up in her memory for Willows Cat Adoption Centre in South Shields.

More than £600 has been raised from donations at the service.

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