Some friends took her out for morning tea on Wednesday to celebrate her birthday and also to acknowledge the wonderful volunteer service she has given to the Parkes Health community for more than 50 years.

Joyce was originally a Pink Lady at Parkes Hospital, visiting patients, doing their washing, changing the water in their flower vases, and in some instances taking patients on a ‘gate leave’ outing.

Joyce said she thoroughly enjoyed her time as a Pink Lady.

“Not only was the volunteering work very rewarding, we also had lots of opportunities to travel around to different places attending conferences and meeting other volunteers,” she said.

These days Joyce, along with her friend, Fay Burke are volunteers at the rehabilitation centre at Parkes Hospital.

Joyce plans to continue her volunteer work for as long as she can and is looking forward to the new hospital being built.

She has lived in Parkes her entire life except for 12 months spent away soon after she was married to Arthur.

Widowed now for 30 years, Joyce has three children who moved away from Parkes after they finished school.

This Sunday, Joyce will celebrate her 90th birthday with family and friends at a special function at Gracelands.