WHEN a former Lymm High School pupil starts her first job later this month at Crewe’s Leighton Hospital she will complete a rare health service “hat trick” for the Porter family of Thelwall.
For Emma Porter, aged 21, will be the third member of the family to become a diagnostic radiographer – following in the footsteps of her aunt, Louise, and her grandmother, Margaret.
She’s thrilled to bits at getting the job – more than 30 applied for it – and sure that the encouragement she received from the family has had a lot to do with giving her the drive and ambition to get her qualifications.
“I always knew I wanted to work in the health service, but it was only when my aunt took me to see what it was like at Warrington Hospital that I realised I wanted to be a radiographer.”
The way in which the three generations started their careers shows how time and technology have moved on.
Margaret started as a darkroom technician at Warrington Hospital – The General as it then was – at 17.
At 18 she started lectures at Manchester Royal Infirmary and Whitworth College – putting in a full Saturday in Manchester after working a five-day week in Warrington.
Later she spent about seven years at the old Warrington Infirmary as a senior radiographer before moving to Northwich Infirmary where she spent 14 years before leaving to go into husband Brian’s business.
When her daughter Louise decided to follow in her footsteps it meant first getting A Levels and then a three year diploma course in Liverpool.
Her first post was at Macclesfield General Hospital, where she spent 11 years, before returning to Warrington Hospital in 1996.
Now Louise Harding, and living at Appleton Thorn with husband Tim, she is now a clinical tutor and reporting radiographer at Warrington Hospital, training young radiographers and lecturing at Liverpool University.
She recently spent six days in Canada at a global research conference on radiation protection and image quality, under the auspices of the International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technologists.
Emma’s gateway to her career has been different again and involved studying at Cumbria University, combined with practical work at the Royal Preston Hospital, leading to her BSc degree.
The former Thelwall Junior School pupil can’t believe her luck in getting a post at Leighton Hospital – a hospital which she likes, is accessible and where she already has friends.
