In 1965 Lorna Muirhead - a Nurse and a Midwife - came to work at the Liverpool Maternity Hospital in Oxford Street. She had only planned to stay for two years but, like many others who come to this city, she fell in love with it and is still here!

Dame Lorna says that her professional passion is the care of labouring women. She has shared many joys, and a few sorrows, delivering Liverpool babies. Aged 50, she was elected to the council of The Royal College of Midwives - the oldest and largest midwifery organisation in the world - and three years later was elected president. For services to midwifery, she was made Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the Millennium honours list.

In 2006, the late Queen Elizabeth II invited Dame Lorna to become Lord-Lieutenant of Merseyside, her own personal representative in the county. This was a post she held for what she describes as "eleven wonderful years".

On standing down from the post of Lord-Lieutenant, Dame Lorna was made Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. Now, in retirement, she reflects on her good fortune "from being a midwife on a bicycle, to being driven in a chauffeur-driven car with a flag on it!".