An NHS worker from East Lancashire has been honoured alongside a colleague for dedicating more than 100 years to public service.

Seventy-year-old Max Oosman, a recent winner at The Sun’s Who Cares Wins Health Awards in the Best Nurse category has worked for the NHS for 52 years.

Max, and colleague Graham Curwen MBE, were thanked at a Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCft) Board meeting earlier this month, where they each received special commemorative 50 year service awards to mark their combined century working in health services.

Max lives in Nelson with his wife Norma, also 70, and a retired nurse, but is originally from Mauritius.

He left in 1972 aged 19, to train as a nurse in the UK and today he is a community mental health nurse practitioner who works in the East Lancashire Memory Assessment Service in Burnley.

He sees patients who have been referred by their GP for a dementia assessment and one of his roles is having to tell people they have dementia.

Max was chosen to speak at the NHSCON75 last year on the recommendation of Dame Ruth May, chief executive of Nursing England, as part of the NHS 75th anniversary celebrations.

His speech marked the contribution of the Windrush generation of nurses from the commonwealth who came over to support the NHS.

Max was also invited by NHS England to attend Westminster Abbey in July 2023 to celebrate the 75 years of the NHS.

Max added: “It was great to be recognised by the Trust for the years I have committed to nursing. I still really enjoy caring for patients and helping them and their families through really tough times.

“I have had a long and rewarding career and I would encourage anyone thinking about becoming a nurse or working in healthcare to definitely do it.

“You can make such a difference to people’s lives, which is one of the best parts of the job.”

Before retiring for a second time last month, Graham, from Lancaster, also celebrated working in the NHS for an impressive 52 years.

He spent his career undertaking a huge variety of roles including managing community health services and undertaking projects to integrate GP surgeries and introducing a patient-based community system, which was the first of its kind. 

Graham did officially retire in 2000, but he wasn’t ready to stop working so continued and joined LSCft in 2006 working as a project manager at North Barn in Lancaster.

Graham said: “I can honestly say there has never been a day in my working life where I have not wanted to come to work.

“I’m really proud of my achievements and it is incredible to have personally witnessed so many changes in the last 65 years, now patient-centred mental health care has never been better.” 

 

The accolades come as part of a Trust-wide ‘thank you’ from LSCft to their staff, where more than 4,000 serving colleagues have been rewarded for over 90,000 collective years in the NHS with badges celebrating five, 10, 20, 40 and 50 years’ service.

Chair of the Board at LSCft, David Fillingham, said: “It was truly an honour to say a huge thank you to both Max and Graham who have literally dedicated decades of their lives to the NHS and helping patients.

“People say that the NHS is a big family, which is certainly the case here at LSCft, and it very much felt like a family celebration on the day.

“They are a remarkable duo, and we wish Graham a very long, fulfilling and happy future, as he recently left us to retire. He deserves a good rest.

“We hope Max continues to enjoy working for us for many more years to come.”

LSCft are committed to investing in people by nurturing talent and providing them with the opportunity to develop by always looking to recruit people of all ages, backgrounds and levels of experience.

To find out more about the career pathways and vacancies available at LSCft please visit www.lscft.nhs.uk/recruitment