Mary Collingwood Hurst

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Author, Radio Broadcaster, Singer, Guitarist and Part-time Fairy Godmother

ABOUT ME

MY STORY

I started creating stories in my head when I was paralysed from the neck down at the age of 4 with a combination of polio and diphtheria.

I spent two months in an isolation hospital unable to move. Not allowed toys or books because of possible cross-infection, and unable to see my family except for once a week through a glass window, my imagination was my only companion.

When I was finally released from the hospital but still struggling to walk properly, I started putting my stories and drawings down on paper. I was only five when a local newspaper reporter learned of this and wrote an article about me. The paper also published my first story about a teddy bear.

I have enjoyed writing ever since and have had a number of different forms of creative writing published and broadcast, including two children’s stories published in hardback by Ladybird books.

In later life, my dissertation on ‘Care of the Terminally Ill Cancer Patient and Their Family’ won the Institute of Welfare Officers Della Phillips national award. This was published and used as a model to set up a hospice abroad.

Prior to marriage into the Navy, I worked for the NHS, first as a student nurse at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. I later changed career direction to become a medical secretary at the Royal Victoria Hospital Bournemouth, then as assistant medical social worker at the same hospital. I then became Deputy Personnel Officer and part of the commissioning team at the new Poole General Hospital in 1968.

In 1970 I married a Royal Navy helicopter pilot. My book, “Green Smarties”, gives an insight into what life was like for a Royal Navy wife in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, when the Navy still had postings abroad and life within the service was very different.

I now have three children and five grandchildren. My hobbies include playing acoustic guitar and singing in public, creative writing and performing on stage with the Bournemouth Gilbert and Sullivan Society. I also enjoy co-presenting programmes and heading the on-air interview team for Hospital Radio Bedside – the local hospital radio station covering five hospitals.

Even with all this going on, I still find time to pursue my original hobby of writing books and short stories for children, young and not-so-young adults. You can find out more about some of my books below.

Bibliography

MY BOOKS

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