A FORMER nurse has become an author with a book documenting his career.

Gary Jones CBE, of Stifford Clays, has ventured into the writing world with his book It’s Not All Blood and Guts.

He was awarded a CBE in the 2003 birthday honours for services to emergency nursing.

He worked at Orsett Hospital and felt compelled to pen his memoirs and experiences.

He started his working life as a 16-year-old hospital cadet in 1969 at the hospital.

After qualifying in 1974 he went to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London to train as an ophthalmic nurse. He then returned to Orsett in the summer of 1975.

Mr Jones, 67, said: “The book takes the reader on my journey and includes a number of patient stories and some of the other interesting activities in my career.

“This includes my time as the Chair of the Royal College of Nursing Accident and Emergency Association, and as honorary consultant to the Chief Nursing Officer at the Department of Health. “It is about my amazing career but the bulk of the book is linked to my life in the emergency department and the people I met, the stories I tell.

“This also includes what it was like as a night staff nurse sometimes working alone. “It is about how we ran a mobile accident team from the department and the call outs that I attended.

“It is about how as a 16-year-old I went to see my first post-mortem and how in later years in the emergency unit a ‘dead body’ came back to life.

“It is about how I stood on the helipad at 3am of one of the world’s most impressive trauma centres in Baltimore USA awaiting the arrival of the next trauma victim, and much more. “It also looks at how the NHS has changed over the last 50 years and in my opinion moved from a service to a business.”

He said it came about as when he told people about his career and the stories they told him to write a book.

The book is available through Waterstones, in store availability at Lakeside and order through any Waterstones shop. It is also available on Amazon and Ebay and is £9.99.