IMMIGRATION FEATURE: KATHLEEN McCalla has worked in the NHS for more than four decades.

Born in Jamaica, the 71-year-old did her nursing training in London and moved to Swindon with her husband Wentworth in 1959.

She found work at the Victoria Hospital in Okus Road and then moved to Princess Margaret Hospital after it was built.

Kathleen, who lives in Lansdown Road, said: "When we came here Swindon was full of people with a deep Wiltshire accent and there were very few ethnic minorities. It was rare to see a black face walking down the road. But we never had any problems here, not compared to some of the stories you heard about what happened in London.

"People on the whole fear what they don't know and once they got to know me then it was fine.

"People were moving here from all over the country, from places like Manchester and Gloucester. It wasn't just people from overseas."

She said at that time it was easy for people all over the West Indies to move overseas after the first immigrants arrived in England on the SS Empire Windrush in 1948.

Mrs McCalla added: "The Windrush was what started it. People were invited to come to England when the country needed to be built up after war but there weren't enough people to do the work."

The couple have six children and five grandchildren.