A group of nurses with a very special bond celebrated 50 years since starting their training together in style on the steps of town hall.

The group had started their training in the Autumn of 1974 at Bolton General Hospital, forming lifelong friendships when they lived together at the nurses’ home.

But it was after tragedy struck and their friend and colleague Sue was killed in a car accident that they decided to keep their bond going with a series of reunions.

Chris Flint, 68, said: “When Sue died, we made this jigsaw, and we said after that happened to Sue that we had to make sure that we kept in touch.

“So, we took this picture off the wall and cut it up into little jigsaw pieces.”

One of the pieces of the jigsawOne of the pieces of the jigsaw (Image: Phil Taylor)

The nurses started to go their separate ways in 1977, but jigsaw has endured for all of the ensuing years.

So too has the friendship between the nurses who first started living and working together in that shared nurses’ home in the 1970s.

The nurses gathered for their reunion in Victoria SquareThe nurses gathered for their reunion in Victoria Square (Image: Phil Taylor)

Mrs Flint had brought the jigsaw pieces with her to town square event, along with old press cuttings showing how the nurses had kept their promises to themselves over the years.

An old cutting from 1984 showed the nurses performing a line kick on the steps of town hall, which they recreated 40 years later.

A reunion photo from 1984A reunion photo from 1984 (Image: Phil Taylor)

Since training together, the nurses went on to have long and successful careers in Bolton and elsewhere as the decades unfolded, with marriages, children and grandchildren to follow.

But for all that time the promise they made all the way back in the 1970s has kept them together and added new chapters to their stories with every meeting.

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Having met on the town hall steps they then went off for a celebratory meal together to talk about old times and everything that has happened since the last reunion.

But their plans will not be stopping there.

Janice Dewsnip, also 68, said: “We’re going on a Caribbean cruise next, we’re going on back-to-back cruises! But with our husbands this time.

“That’s something else, we’re all still married to our original husbands!”