ONE of Bolton's longest-serving pharmacists, Ruth Shaw, has retired from Hunt & Marsden in Tonge Moor Road after 36 years.
Colleagues and friends held a surprise party at the shop and she was presented with flowers, chocolates, wine and other gifts.
Mrs Shaw, who lives in Sharples Park, Bolton, has dispensed hundreds of thousands of prescriptions in a 43-year career. She was 14 when she started washing bottles for her father, Thomas Aspden, at Knott's Chemists in Blackburn Road, Bolton.
After qualifying as a pharmacist, she worked as a locum in Bolton, Blackburn, Warrington and Manchester before joining Hunt and Marsden.
She stepped down as manager of the Tonge Moor branch earlier this year.
Mrs Shaw, who has been overwhelmed by good will messages from staff and customers, says there is a much happier working atmosphere these days involving doctors and pharmacists.
She added: "Doctors were God. Now it is a much better relationship and the patient benefits."
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