A husband and wife who work together at St Helier hospital have been honoured for 80 years' of service to local healthcare.

Alan and Polly Lutchman started working for Epsom and St Helier hospitals in 1973, the day after they moved to Carshalton Beeches, and have not looked back since.

In honour of their service to the hospitals, which both serve the area, they were presented with awards at a ceremony last week.

The pair met during their training at Dorking hospital when Mr Lutchman tried to make tea by putting water and teabags in the kettle together - the future Mrs Lutchman had to intervene.

Now, Mrs Lutchman, 63, is a paediatric staff nurse at Queen Mary's Hospital for Children in Carshalton, part of the Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust, and Mr Lutchman, 64, is a charge nurse in pre-assessment at Epsom Hospital.

Between them, they have worked all over the trust and do not have any plans to stop in the near future.

Mr Lutchman, originally from Mauritius, said: "I spent all of my younger days at St Helier Hospital – all the wards you can name, I’ve worked on them.

"I’ve always loved my job – it’s always been about being a nurse and looking after patients – the same for Polly too.

"We’ve spent our working lives here and I think we’ll end them here too."

Mrs Lutchman, originally from Trinidad, said: "I loved the children and can’t imagine myself anywhere else.

"There have been lots of changes over the years. It’s the same work but we’ve learnt to do it in a better way."

The pair were two of five people given long service awards during a celebration at Epsom Downs Racecourse on Wednesday, July 2.

Trust chief executive Chrisha Alagaratnam said: "There are many great examples of dedicated staff such as Alan and Polly working here at our Trust and across the NHS as a whole. 

"Over the forty years they have both been with us, they must have seen thousands of patients and have continuously striven to provide excellent healthcare to local residents."