Haywards Heath physiotherapy centre manager retires after 50 years

Wendy Langley started working at the Physio Therapy Centre in Heath Road, Haywards Heath, as a Saturday morning receptionist when she was just 16.

Over that time, she has seen the centre grow from a small family business into one of the largest privately owned therapy practices in Mid Sussex – which is celebrating 100 years this year.

She told the Middy on Tuesday: “Today is the first day I would have been at work – it is a very strange feeling!

“The Physio Therapy Centre has been such a big part of my life as my grandfather started the practice and my mother and father then joined him and I worked with one of my brothers who still works there.

“It is a big thing to leave and it was a big choice. I really wanted to get the business to 100 years.”

Wendy said she was overwhelmed by gifts, cake and flowers from staff and patients on her last day on Thursday (February 27), leaving her emotional.

“It is like a big family,” she said. “I really enjoyed my work – I knew it back to front and inside out. I am proud of the business and looking after all the patients all those years.”

She said her brother, Nigel Howell, will be now running the centre with long-standing staff Paul Johnson and Jeanette Uwins.

She commented: “I think that is what is nice about the practice, we have always had staff that have stayed with us, we have been really lucky.

“It is a caring profession and it is very much a family business and that ethos carries through the practice centre family.”

She said she wanted to say a ‘big thank you’ to the tens of thousands of patients who have passed through the doors.

“It has been a pleasure to look after all the people who have passed through the centre, whatever reason for coming to the Physio Therapy Centre,” she commented.

“The business’ success is due to developing a wonderful, caring, professional and administrative team to support and meet the needs of a diverse patient base.”

Wendy and her husband Lindon, a retired police officer and coroner’s officer, are re-locating from their home in Ardingly to Cornwall, where one of their sons and two grandchildren lives.

She told the Middy: “They have set up a fudge shop and I am going to help out with that! I originally trained in catering and I love cooking. I taught my two sons how to cook – they are amazing cooks.”

To find out more about the Physio Therapy Centre, visit https://www.therapy-centre.net.