Happy Birthday Florence Nightingale: Lady with lamp service revived

Today is the birthday of Florence Nightingale who was born on 12 May 1820 and died on 13 August 1910 at the age of 90. Later in life the nurse was given the name The Lady with the Lamp as she was the pioneer of modern nursing, and it is because of this that a Florence Nightingale service used to take place, but the last one that was performed was back in 90’s in Swansea. Well it now looks as though nurses in Swansea have decided to renew the lady with the lamp service, the nurses who took part say that it symbolises their profession’s values as well as the story of Florence Nightingale

The service which took place on Sunday May 11 at St Mary’s Church also marked the 60th anniversary of the NHS as well as the merger of Swansea and Bro Morgannwg NHS trusts which then became the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University NHS Trust. The Lady with lamp’ service has nurses taking part who will carry a lamp to the church altar, the lamp itself was crafted back in 1960 and is a copy of the one that Florence Nightingale used while she did her bit to help the wounded in the Crimean War, which took place in the 1850’s. The silver lamp which is used in the service is passed from a nurse who is about to retire to one who has different levels of experience and then finally being passed to a student nurse.

Source – BBC News