The techno-loving 'goth gran' celebrating 50 years as an NHS nurse

A ‘one off’ community nurse - described as ‘a fantastic asset to the NHS’ - is celebrating 50 years in the job. Erika Slater, 67, who works with young early onset dementia patients in the Stockport area is described by one of her patients as ‘the most kind, caring nurse I could have ever asked for’.

Music loving Erika, who lives in Macclesfield, was brought up in Moss Side before moving to Cheshire as a teenager. The mother of three, who has five grandsons, left school with no qualifications before starting her training as a nurse cadet in December 1974.

She said: “When I left school I worked in a factory making lightbulbs. The reason I started nursing was that I was visiting A&E and I looked at the nurses and thought ‘I could do that’.”

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She trained at Parkside psychiatric hospital in Macclesfield before moving south to Kent and East Sussex. She later worked in Buxton as a ward manager and then spent 10 years in Tameside as a nurse manager.

“I wanted to go back to clinical, I didn’t enjoy management. “I started in Stockport in 2008 as a community psychiatric nurse for Pennine Care NHS trust and have been here ever since.

“I work with young people who have got dementia, developing symptoms in their 40s and early 50s. It’s quite devastating to be given a diagnosis of dementia because you’re being told you’re going to get worse and there’s no cure but I find I get the greatest joy from working with people and showing them you can live well with dementia.

“The greatest gift is putting a smile on people’s faces and encouraging people to see the positives in life. I tell them don’t put off what you can do today – live your life now,