DISTRICT nurse Tracy Hall is on the front line of the fight against the chest disease which has plagued North Staffordshire for generations.

She acts as a lifeline for scores of patients who have developed the illnesses mainly through smoking or working in pits and potbanks.

Tracy has made herself such an expert that she now trains her colleagues how to manage their own patients in the community.

Her passion for and knowledge of her subject has already won her the status of becoming one of just 13 UK nurses to be made a Queen's Nurse by community nursing charity The Queen's Nursing Institute (QNI).

And that has landed her an invitation to a Buckingham Palace garden party next month.

But closer to home she has been nominated for a Sentinel Our Heroes of the NHS award by grateful patient Irene Lovatt.

Mrs Lovatt, aged 84, believes she is managing to live independently at home because of Tracy and other nurses who make regular calls to her Northwood home.

She said: "Tracy is absolutely wonderful and I'm sure I couldn't carry on at home without her care and dedication.

"She checks up on me all the time to make sure I am managing my breathing problems properly. She constantly goes the extra mile to make sure I'm OK and is a genuine hero to all her patients."

Tracy, aged 43, pictured left, who lives in Packmoor and works from Tunstall Health Centre, has been a nurse for 25 years and been working in the community since 1996 caring for people living at home.

Her Queen's Nurse award gives her influence on national policy over the best ways of supporting people with chronic conditions to keep them out of hospital.

But it is her bread and butter work with patients which brings her the greatest satisfaction.

She says: "It can be very challenging but some patients are so poorly it means a lot to be able to keep them as free of symptoms as possible.

"Many of them have contracted the condition through giving service to Stoke's traditional heavy industries. And those who are ill through smoking took up the habit at a times when you were almost seen as strange if you didn't smoke.

"But I'm totally shocked to be put forward for The Sentinel award which has come out of the blue."

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