MAUREEN Heggie is retiring from a job improving the lives of Bolton's elderly hospital patients -- to do exactly the same as a volunteer.

But no-one who has known this hard-working fundraiser during her 25-year nursing career will be at all surprised.

The staff nurse and activities' co-ordinator from the Royal Bolton Hospital has led a caring team of staff and volunteers on J1 Ward.

They have arranged scores of events for them -- from canal trips to concert parties, from therapeutic gardening groups to bingo, and from aromatherapy sessions to church services.

"We have the PAT Dogs scheme on the ward with Richard Harrison and his Burmese mountain dog Drew, and Mary Houghton brings in her Canadian eagle owl Merlyn," said Maureen.

Staff will even pick up a patient's dog from kennels to bring the much-loved pet to visit, to reassure and delight a patient.

The patients there are all elderly people with mental illness who love the extra activities. "It gives them something to look forward to. They come to life, it's that simple," Maureen said.

And Maureen and the team have only made this possible by holding all kinds of fund-raising events, from strawberry teas, coffee mornings and numerous sales and raffles to sponsored events and the popular annual J1 Jamboree.

This cash pays for vital extras like toiletries and trips out, newspapers, magazines and sweets. "Some of our patients have no-one to visit them and bring them things, so we raise money to try and make their lives better," she added.

Now, Maureen is ending a nursing career that started in her native Yorkshire and brought her to Bolton after she met, and later married, a patient.

Jim Heggie had been a serving soldier in Northern Ireland when a bullet paralysed him from the chest down. He was a patient in a spinal unit in Leeds where Maureen, then a student nurse, was a volunteer.

The two got together, and when Jim returned to the Bolton area, Maureen moved across the Pennines to join him. They married, set up home in Eagley, and nine years ago, their happiness was complete when son Jack arrived.

Maureen had always been interested in psychiatric nursing, and took a job at the Royal Bolton Hospital. For the past 12 years, she has worked on J1, becoming the activities' co-ordinator.

No project has been too big -- like raising £2,500 for a greenhouse for patients to use.

And she has had consistent support from local firms like Warburtons, Cohen's Chemists and Carrs Pasties.

Always high profile, Maureen has been a finalist in the Bolton Woman of the Year competition, and was also chosen to carry the lead baton in the town's celebrations for the Queen's Jubilee.

She is now approaching 50 and has decided to spend more time with Jim and Jack. Her hospital role is being officially taken over by auxiliaries Jean Marland and Christine Crompton.

But, Maureen fully intends to keep on helping with the work she has grown to love. And with the staff and volunteers who have always helped her.

"It really is very rewarding work," she insists.

"And I always make a point of thanking all the people who help us -- because then I can always go back to them again the next time!"