International Women’s Day 2021 profile: Lois Mellor

Monday was International Women’s Day and to mark the occasion we have been asking our female colleagues about themselves. You may be surprised by their answers!

Lois Mellor, Director of Midwifery

Tell us about your journey into the NHS and what you would do differently, if anything?

I became a student nurse in 1987 in London, and soon after qualifying as a nurse started my midwifery training in Cheltenham. After qualifying in 1994 my midwifery career took  off from there. I became a junior sister in 2001, and a senior sister in 2002. By 2005 I was the first Governance Midwife in Yorkshire, and over the next few years acted up several times as Matron. I was seconded to a different trust in 2014 as Inpatient Maternity Matron, and in 2019 moved to DBTH as Head of Midwifery.

If you were stuck in a lift with anybody who would it be and why

Pink – I find her extremely interesting and inspiring for not conforming to the expected

Your most inspirational female icon, past or present?

J.K Rowling

What is your favourite food and most disliked, and why?

Any seafood dish and most disliked is milk, I was made to drink it when I was a child (and milk was free at school)I absolutely hated the taste and smell

Do you have any phobias

Heights – hopeless

What did you want to be when you were a little girl

A nurse

Tell us something funny about yourself.

I always tie knots in plastic bags before storing them