Said her youngest daughter, Denise: “Mum very much appreciated and valued the work of Liz Murphy and her colleagues.  Dad had undergone valve surgery at St. George’s, and after that really benefited from the confidence-building cardiac rehabilitation course at St. Peter’s.  After each session he would be chatting, laughing and feeling so much better which would be good to see.”

“Last year he was in both St. Georges’ and St. Peter’s again and spent six weeks receiving treatment on Birch Ward and once more he has needed the support and encouragement of the cardiac rehabilitation programme.“

Jean Mitchell was in St. Peter’s Hospital herself after she became ill last year with medical problems unrelated to her heart - although whilst there had a heart attack which was the cause of her sudden death.

Denise and her dad called in on Cardiac Specialist Nurse Liz Murphy (24-01-08) to present her with £430 for her to use for the benefit of patients on the rehabilitation programme.  This will be put towards equipment and training for the Rehabilitation or Secondary Prevention team.

Said Liz: “Mrs Mitchell is well remembered here and we are very touched that the family are making this donation in her memory.  We run the twice weekly rehabilitation courses throughout the year for about 400 patients who have either had planned heart surgery or what are known as “acute cardiac events.”   The one-and-a-half-hour sessions are very physical with three different levels of fitness circuits for the patients to use including a “staircase”, exercise bike and treadmill.  After six weeks they generally feel far better about getting back to doing normal things and not worrying about increasing their cardio-vascular function.”

The Mitchell family used to live in Maybury and 22 years ago moved to St. John’s, Woking. Denise’s older sister, Lesley, now lives in the north of England.  Mrs Mitchell was very much a “home” person who enjoyed her house and garden and frequent holidays to different parts of the UK since her retirement 13 years ago from Sainsbury in Woking, where she had worked for almost 25 years.