AT 80 years old and with more than 50 years in the job, Keith Knowles still looks forward to going to work.

Enjoying what he does is what has kept him working at Warrington Hospital for so long.

This coupled with having a ‘searching mind’-  which means if there’s a problem, Keith wants to fix it.

He also told the Warrington Guardian how his job gives him a ‘sense of purpose’ and that he enjoys the social element.

Keith, who has a wife, Laura, of more than 50 years, two daughters, and two grandchildren, started at Warrington Hospital back in 1971.

He began his career at Lovely Lane as a senior engineer. Now, he is a fountain of knowledge and offers advisory and consulting in the estates department.

Although aged 80, Keith, who is from Atherton, is still working part-time at the hospital.

“It was Easter Monday and I was 64 and a half years old,” Keith said.

Warrington Guardian:

“I saw the weather, it was pouring down with rain.

“I thought I can’t do anything in the garden, I can’t go out on my motorbike, what is there to do?

“So I thought I may as well just carry on enjoying work.”

There have been some special highlights for Keith who has been involved in some major projects at the hospital.

These include getting rid of manual steam boilers and installing alternative water boilers as well as dealing with water systems.

Keith has also seen a complete transformation of the hospital. When he started, a lot of the buildings were Victorian. But during his time here, a lot of have been demolished – for example to make way for the Appleton Wing in 1979 and the Burtonwood and Croft Wing in 1984.

Before joining Warrington Hospital, Keith worked at Wigan Infirmary.

And prior to this, he was an engineer apprentice in Horwich where he built steam locomotives before moving to a job at Trafford Park where he worked with steam turbines for power generation.

As he turned 80 last week, Keith does have plans in the not so distant future to stop working.

“There are other things I want to do,” he added.

“With Covid, it set everyone back.

“We lost about three good holidays because of that and it sort of knocked the incentive to travel.”

So far, Keith has a cruise booked and he hopes to visit plenty of other places.

He will also take time to enjoy riding his motorbike.