Audrey Kettlewell got a big surprise when she turned up for her retirement party after 16 years as caretaker and cleaner at a doctors' surgery.

A last cup of tea helps Audrey Kettlewell mark her retirement with ambulancemen, from left, Dave Hagyard, Mick Waudby and Charlie Heppell.

After the Escrick practice presented her with a microwave oven, a team of North Yorkshire ambulancemen gatecrashed the party to say their own thank you to their adopted "mum" Mrs Kettlewell, who has supplied them with tea and biscuits for the last 13 years.

The ambulance crews are on regular stand-by in a lay-by at the side of the A19 in Escrick, one of the service's strategic "halfway house" locations to tackle emergencies.

And since 1986, Mrs Kettlewell has been supplying them with a morning cuppa while they kept in constant touch with their control room in York.

The ambulancemen presented a surprised Mrs Kettlewell, 68, with an inscribed clock featuring the service's coat-of-arms.

Leading ambulance paramedic Dave Hagyard said: "She's been our mum on the A19 for all these years, and we couldn't let her go without saying a very big thank-you. She's been a real gem".

Mrs Kettlewell, of Main Street, Riccall, said: "They are always very good company, and I'll miss them very much.

"Over the years I got to know scores of them and we are all on first-name terms".

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