Photograph: Supplied by the couplePhotograph: Supplied by the coupleon was in his third year of nurse training when he started a stint in intensive care at University College Hospital in London. “You could choose whether to do it in your first year or third year, but most of us wanted to wait until we had some experience, because it’s quite a difficult job,” he says. In March 1987, he walked on to the ward, feeling anxious.
“I remember my heart going pitter-patter,” says Don. “I’d never met someone like her before.” Tracey says she remembers he had “lovely eyes”, but she was too focused on the job to pay him much attention. Over the next few weeks, they continued to do shifts together and got on brilliantly. Despite their spark, neither of them thought it would become romantic. “It didn’t seem ethical to date a student. Although there were no rules about it, it just didn’t feel right,” says Tracey.
In early 1988, the couple moved from London to Sawtry, a small village in Cambridgeshire. At the end of 1987, they had both nursed victims from, which had been traumatic. “We needed to go somewhere else for a while, so we got jobs in a hospital in Peterborough,” says Tracey. They married in 1989 and their daughter was born in 1992. “She was born on my birthday, which was the best present ever,” says Don.