“Never underestimate the difference you made and the lives you touched.
“You genuinely cared about us… and that made all the difference”.
That was just one of the messages of thanks for Stella Vile from her patients as she prepared to retire after more than 35 years with Guernsey’s sexual health service, The Orchard Centre.
Mrs Vile’s voice cracked just a little as she told Express about how much she’d “loved” her three and a half decades with the service, adding: “I enjoyed all of it.”
Now the service’s Lead Nurse bounces between being “nervous” and “excited” about her upcoming retirement.
She plans to spend more time with her children and grandchildren, take a few trips – and to give her husband a much-need break from listening to her talking about work.
“He says, ‘what are we going to talk about when you finish?’
“I’m going to miss it… and I’m gonna miss my patients,” she added.
A listener and an advocate
Mrs Vile joined the service as a part-time chaperone after she’d had her children, accompanying female patients, but soon found she thrived in the role and took on more responsibility.
As well as screening people for sexually-transmitted infections (STIs), her work involved supporting people with long-term conditions such as HIV and hepatitis B and C.
Like all nurses “you care about people, you want to help them,” she said.
However, on a small island people with incurable – and often embarrassing – conditions like HIV frequently developed a much closer relationship with their nurse.
“Some of the patients I’ve known for 25 years, so I know them and they know me.”
That meant she often did more than a typical nurse would, being someone to listen and – often – advocate for them.
Changing treatments
When she joined in 1990, the service was much smaller and moved between several locations, including GPs surgeries and the old Castel Hospital, before finding a more permanent home at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital.
Mrs Vile said treatments had come on leaps and bounds during her time with The Orchard Centre.
She explained that HIV treatment had vastly improved over the past three decades.
“When I first started, patients would set an alarm night and day because they had to take a cocktail of tablets.
“This one with food, that one after food, this one at this time – they got fed up with it.”
Now, most patients only needed one or two tablets a day and the medication had far fewer side effects.
“That’s the big change – people are living a long, healthy life,” she said.
Some of her most “wonderful” memories were when HIV patients had healthy babies, which would not have been possible without modern medicine.
“I think that is lovely, you can just see people having normal lives,” she said.
… and changing attitudes
Attitudes to sexual health had also evolved over the decades Mrs Vile had been in the role, she said, with less shame and secrecy.
However, as recently as eight years ago she was asked by a healthcare professional if she was “worried about catching HIV”.
“I was just so cross,” she said.
“Though, I did say ‘I’m not having sex with my patients’. I was really proud of myself for that.”
‘Loved it’
Some of her patients had asked if they could go for coffee with her once she retired.
“Well, I’ll have the time now,” she said, “I can do that.”
So how does Mrs Vile look back on her time with The Orchard Centre?
“I’ve absolutely loved it.
“I’ve met some lovely people and worked with some lovely people as well,” she finished.