Meet some of the region's longest serving workers

Derek James, Journalist

Derek has worked as a journalist for 58 years and still writes weekly features for the EDP, Weekend and Let's Talk magazine.

Derek, who grew up in Diss and went to school at Earsham Hall, started his career in journalism at 16, when he got a job at the Diss Express in 1964 during the school holidays.

"I loved it from the moment I started. I never went back to school," he says. "They offered me a job so I stayed, and I've been working in newspapers ever since. I've never wanted to do anything else."

Derek has fond memories of his first day at the Diss Express: "I had to buy my own typewriter and it cost £4. I got paid £5 a week, so I lost that money!" he laughs.

The journalist says he's always loved talking and listening to people and finding out all about them.

"I get more pleasure out of talking to a couple who have celebrated their golden wedding just from telling their stories," he says. "So often they're just people and they never get the chance to tell their stories in a local newspaper."

During his almost six decade career, the most poignant times for Derek have included speaking with people who served in the Second World War.

"It was very interesting for me to sit down and talk to them and to realise how these gentlemen and women would put their own lives at risk to save others. We've got freedom today because of them," he says.

"A lot of people who came back from the Japanese prisoner of war camps, they wouldn't speak for years about it because it was so horrendous. I felt it was a great honour just to be able to sit there and listen to them talk. I felt very humble about that."

Amongst other publications, Derek has worked for the East Anglian Daily Times, The Christchurch Times, Huddersfield Daily Examiner and Marylebone Mercury.

He recalls that whilst he was working for the Newham Recorder, he was sent off to interview several East End gangsters. "They didn't tell me they were gangsters till I got back to the office!" he chuckles.

Derek settled back in Norfolk after a job offer writing the Whiffler Page - a chatty feature that was in the paper every night. "I used to go on Radio Norfolk every week and speak to Roy Waller and Keith Skues and I really enjoyed it."

"One of the best things I ever did in Norwich was years ago when a chap came to see me, Derek Moore, and he played with a group called The Toffs. He said 'wouldn't it be nice to find the other members?'

"So I wrote a story and then other members of other Norfolk rock n roll bands got in touch, and all of a sudden they started talking to each other.

"They were mostly grandfathers, but we asked them if they would every play again. I spoke to David Clayton, Andy Archer and Roy Waller, and the Norwich Evening News and Radio Norfolk Golden Years started.

"It was organised by a man called Terry Wickham. We had eight bands playing at The Talk in 1996. It sold so well we had to move it to the UEA. We raised about £120,000 for various charities.

"We had Tony Sheridan, a Norwich man who taught The Beatles to rock n' roll in Hamburg in the early '60s. They called him 'The Teacher'. He came back from Germany to play. We got Peter Jay and The Jaywalkers and the whole thing was just wonderful."

After all this time, Derek is still very much working and writing now. "I can't stop!" he laughs. "If it suddenly got boring, I'd give it up. I thought I'd probably retire at 65, but I'm 73 now and I want to keep going. I don't know what else I could do, really!

What does it take to be a good writer? "Be interested in people and events. It's a privilege to be able to pass on information and trying to get the correct facts and figures.

"They'll soon let you know if you've got it wrong," he chuckles, "it shows somebody is reading it and taking an interest!"

Pat Wilkin, Hairdresser

Pat has been the owner of Chez Elle in Sprowston for 52 years.

"I started my career at 15 and I worked for Nigel Alexandre's in Norwich," begins Pat. " I did my apprenticeship with them and I stayed with them for two years before I went out on my own in 1969."

This was the beginning of a half-century as the owner of Chez Elle Hair Design on Blenheim Road.

Going it alone was an ambition Pat had had since deciding to become a hairdresser. "I had an amazing time at Nigel Alexandre, and I thank them for the training they gave me. I just always had this hunger to go on my own," she says.

Pat opened the doors to her salon alongside one apprentice and the loyal customers who had followed her to her new premises. In fact, some of them still come to her to this day.

Don't be mistaken in thinking that Pat only caters for those who are in their twilight years. She admittedly loves a challenge serves a wide range of clients.

"Because I'm the age I am, I don't just do the elderly. I've got teenagers, young children, girls in their 20s, and we still do weddings. It's a good cross section," she says.

With a career spanning more than five decades it has meant a lot of styles to keep up with, but Pat has loved all of the different trends from the flicks of the '70s to the perms of the '80s.

"I've done the big hair, the hair up in the curls. Now you're doing that same work in a much more casual way. For example, for weddings people are still having their hair up, but now the look is more casual. It's not big curls cemented in, if you know what I mean!" she laughs.

"There are very few perms now, it's all about colouring. Colours have changed a lot though the years. Years ago, they were very flat and I hated doing the black dyes. That doesn't happen now because people don't have the one flat colour, they'll have a base, with ombre or lighter on the ends.."

The salon has also moved with the times, bringing together other elements to provide services popular with customers. Pat shares her salon with another member of staff, two stylists who rent chairs, a chiropodist and a sports therapist. She's also on the look out for a beautician.

"To be a good hairdresser you've got to have good training, you've got to know what you're doing and you've got to have a friendly attitude towards people," she explains.

"Even if you're busy with a client and somebody walks through the door, you lift your head up and make them feel welcome. Personality with knowing what you're doing all adds to making it successful."

So, has Pat ever been tempted to hang up the hairdryer? "Retire? No!" she exclaims.

"I can go in for four days and I keep busy. If I was going in to sit about I'd consider retiring, but I keep busy while I'm there and it's lovely. I've got an amazing set of customers."

Lee Vasey, Musician

Lee has been a professional musician since 1969. Since starting the Lee Vasey Band back in the early 1980s, Lee and some of the region's top musicians have been entertaining audiences at venues across Norfolk, Suffolk and beyond.

Aged 15, Lee joined a band with his brother, Dec, on bass and cousin, Roy 'Chubby Brown' Vasey, yes, the comedian, on drums. They played the northern clubs with the music of the day - Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Beatles and late '60s rock.

"I probably started playing guitar when I was around 12," explains Lee. "When I was 14, I used to go out on my own and go into the local folk club every week, and watch the guitar players.

"I'd sneak in and get myself half a beer and sit in the corner and watch them playing bluegrass and folk music," he chuckles. "There wasn't any internet or any means of learning apart from watching somebody, in those days. In the breaks I'd ask them how they did things, and that's how I learned."

The young band Lee had joined with his family members gigged all around the north east - Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Sunderland and Gateshead - bringing the joy and colour that music creates into the industrial and steel towns and cities.

"I had a job in British Steel because where I lived just outside Middlesbrough was surrounded by British Steel and ICI. Industry was everywhere, so I got a job in the steel works and I just hated it!

"I had another job with the parks department picking weeds, and I didn't like that either! I just thought I rather be a guitar player so that's what I did."

At 17, he joined a local dance band, working four nights a week as part of a club residency. But this was the making of him as a professional musician and saw Lee honing his craft and improving his music reading and arranging skills.

"In those days there were two major night club chains - Mecca and the Bailey Organisation, and I got a job at the second biggest Bailey, which was in Hull," says Lee. "It was seven nights a week.

"I was there for four years and during that time we had loads of great bands performing there, loads of American bands and the English acts that were doing the big nightclubs, including Norman Wisdom, Mud and Showaddywaddy.

He fondly recalls spending a week hanging out with legendary comic and entertainer Tommy Cooper. "Tommy Cooper!" he laughs. "He was there for a week, and invited us to hang out with him and have a drink, which we did. We spent a whole week with Tommy, which was really great!"

It was a job offer at the Samson and Hercules which saw him move to Norwich, which saw the emergence of the Lee Vasey Band.

"While I was at the Samson in 1982, we formed a three-piece band and used to play guitar instrumentals. We were doing a complete mix of loads of guitar stuff - jazz, rock, everything. We used to finish off with the 1812 overture!

"When I think about it now, I don't know how we got away with it," he laughs. "That was the first Lee Vasey Band."

Influenced by the American style swing and jazz bands, he decided to expand this to a 10 piece, and soon had a regular Sunday slot at The Lawyer pub in Norwich. When they started being asked to perform at parties, they put together a '70s and '80s disco set.

"That was the beginning of the that was the beginning of the band that everybody thinks of now," he says.

Whether its been as a guest at a wedding, a dinner dance, beer festival, birthday party or in a pub, Over the last four decades it would be unusual if you hadn't seen Lee perform in a some venue or other in Norfolk or Suffolk.

"It's a cracking band and we've had loads of great musicians and singers that have been in it," he says. "I love it, and we have a great time."

The band is still going and is incredibly popular, and Lee reckons is through trying to bring something unique and dynamic that has been the key to its longevity.

"All of the arrangements and stuff we play I write myself. I've always tried, within the writing, to do it as well as I can and really use the musicians as well as I can. Because I've thought in those terms, I've always tried to make it good.

"It's not necessarily always the case, though, I've done some terrible arrangements! If we've tried them and I've thought 'that's rubbish!' they get thrown in the bin!"

So with the band still going as strong as ever, is Lee tempted to switch off the mic or unplug the amp? Not likely!

"I still enjoy playing, I really do," he says "One of the real bonuses of being a musician is you can interact with other people. It's brilliant.

"It's good to see the fun you can bring to someone's event. People really appreciate the fact you've gone there and done your best, and they're really appreciative. And that is brilliant.

"I would loathe the thought that I wasn't gonna go out and do it anymore."

Jill Irving, Health Visitor and School Nurse
Jill, 65, from Hethersett, is a former nurse and health visitor. She spent 30 years in the NHS and now works as a private health visitor and school nurse.

The grandmother of three began her nurse training in 1975 at London's Westminster Hospital, where she studied both children's and adult nursing.

"I’m a failed medical student," she laughs. "I wanted to do medicine but my A-levels weren’t good enough for medical school. I desperately wanted to do a nursing degree but they didn’t do such a thing back then.

"My mother was a nurse, and I decided to go to the Westminster Hospital to train. It was by the Houses of Parliament so we used to get a lot of MPs coming in.

"I can remember I was a junior nurse and they brought in Harold Wilson’s [the then Prime Minister] private secretary. The sister called me in and said I had to get a new apron."

Once qualified Jill's first job was as a staff nurse in Children's A&E at Westminster Hospital, and during one of her shifts she met a health visitor.

"I asked her what it meant, because I had no idea. She told me what it was in those days, and said, 'The best thing about being a health visitor is you jump straight from being a staff nurse's grade, to a sister’s grade.' I thought that sounded good because I wanted to buy a flat!"

Jill was given a place at the Norfolk and Norwich to study midwifery, where she worked alongside what she described as the 'classic old midwife' and qualified aged 22. From there she could study to become a health visitor.

Before the course began, Jill needed to get a job, so her mum presented her with a copy of The Lady magazine, and she applied for a maternity nurse position.

"I rang the number and the man who answered said, ”Kensington Palace, can I help you?” I put the receiver down thinking I had misdialled. But I was actually applying for Lady Jane Fellowes, who was Lady Diana’s sister!"

Jill was the successful applicant, but never made it to Kensington Palace as Lady Jane went into premature labour while Jill was away travelling, ahead of the starting date, so the family had had to bring in someone else for the role.

"I never got to work there," says Jill. "That would have been the time when Diana and Charles were just going out, too.

"Lady Jane Fellowes wrote to my mum, and we’ve still got the letter saying, “I’m so sorry. We’re so disappointed we can’t have Jill start with us." Otherwise, I would've gone there and my life may well have been a bit different! It was a sliding doors moment," she says.

Upon qualifying in 1982, Jill, believed to be the youngest health visitor in the country, quickly found a job at the West Pottergate off Earlham Road in Norwich.

"I was so young and they didn’t have any ID in those days. They had to make me up an ID label to say I was actually over 18 because I looked about 12!" she laughs.

Jill worked across Norwich at various practices including Thorpe Health Centre, a surgery in Princes Street and Bowthorpe Health Centre - a career in the NHS that would span 30 years.
"I saw massive changes over that time," she says. "The role of the health visitor had changed so much.

Jill decided to start up on her own, and work with families on a one-on-one basis. Her work also took her to London, providing baby clinics for some of the nurseries run by big investment banks who provided childcare for their workers, including at Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs.

On her work with families, Jill says: "Ninety per cent of my work was around sleep. It was mainly with parents whose children were between 11 months and three years old, whose parents were going back to work and they desperately needed their child to sleep!

"My job was to get them sleeping, and in the majority of cases it was successful.

The pandemic saw Jill working more as a school nurse, based at King Edward VII in Norwich Cathedral. "It was the busiest I've ever been. I was school nursing and health visiting," she says.

"There was such a great need. Families were struggling because of sleep and behaviour issues. I saw children who were anxious and so were the parents."

Jill has no plans for retirement as yet, but as part of her school nursing work there is a fair amount of supervising children on the sports field. "Ask me on a rainy Sunday and I'll probably want to retire!" she laughs.

"While I'm physically fit and doing my Pilates, walking and running I'm not going to retire. It's good for your own mental health and I still have something to offer."

Dr Pam Chrispin, East Anglian Air Ambulance
As part of her 40 year medical career, Dr Pam Chrispin's contributions to healthcare across East Anglia have been enormous.

Pam, 62, who lives in Diss, became the East Anglian Air Ambulance’s first ever formally employed female flying doctor in 2007, back when all of EAAA’s doctors were volunteers.

During the last 14 years, she has helped countless patients receive critical care in their hour of need, taking the hospital to the roadside or bedside, and has helped to shape the service into the leading air ambulance service that it is today.

In 2018, Pam became EAAA’s first Deputy Medical Director, a post she held up until her very recent retirement on January 31.

Specialising as an anaesthetist, Pam has sat on several medical boards across the region, including with the East of England Ambulance Service (medical director 2010 – 2013), West Suffolk Hospital (Medical Director 2014 – 2016) and continues to be a non-executive director at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital for safeguarding, maternity and children and young people.
Throughout her clinical career, Pam also found time to volunteer as a doctor for Suffolk Accident Rescue Service, helping as many patients as possible receive life-saving care pre-hospital.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time with EAAA, proving that a small middle-aged woman in glasses could do this job back in 2007 when it was, at the time, a job mainly carried out by men," said Pam.

"A lot has changed in the last 14 years, the service is now highly professional and the care we can deliver pre-hospital is simply amazing. EAAA has moved on from being a rapid way of taking people to hospital to bringing the hospital to them.

"It’s been wonderful and I am feeling very emotional about leaving, but I’ve done my bit and am delighted to pass the baton on to the next generation. I will miss everyone dearly but am looking forward to spending more time with my family.”

Pam is retiring from EAAA but will carry on her role as a non-executive director at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and will work as an executive coach, while continuing her love for tennis, cycling, Liverpool FC and looking after her grandchildren.