Tributes to long-serving NHS Trust director and Home-Start trustee

Ann O’Ryan, who had also worked in the physiotherapy department and was later a volunteer at Home-Start St Helens, passed away on March 7, aged 89.

A “very sociable” person with a wide circle of friends Ann was also described as someone who has left a “fabulous legacy”.

Ann was born in Aspinall Street, Prescot where her family ran a doctor’s practice next door and she was one of three sisters, with a brother as the youngest. The O’Ryan practice was headed by her father Dr Jerome O’Ryan and his brothers Dr Inno and Dr Dennis were involved for a number of years.

In the late 1940s the family moved out from Prescot to Beech House, on St Helens Road, until 1970 and Ann attended Notre Dame School for girls, in Eccleston.

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After her father’s sudden death in 1950, Ann decided to study physiotherapy, going to London for a spell until she moved up through the department at Whiston Hospital and was key in its development.

On retiring in 1996, she continued as a non-executive director at the St Helens and Knowsley NHS Trust for many years during which time hospitals were transformed from Victorian workhouses to the “state-of-the-art care facilities” of today.

Ann was “pivotal” in these changes, and fulfilled the role of ‘Design Champion’, ensuring that the new hospitals were designed with clinical knowledge helping to shape services that were “wrapped around patients’ needs and were also clinically efficient”.

Ann was 'Design Champion' and played a pivotal role during the creation of the modern Whiston Hospital (Image: Stock)

Meanwhile, Ann also became heavily involved in family support charity Home-Start, where she was a trustee, before finally leaving in May 2023.

Ann was someone who loved the outdoors, especially the Lake District, her favourite spot for a change of scene, very few of whose summits she won't have absorbed the view from.

She was also very sociable and had a wide circle of friends, always keen to entertain and be entertained. A great talker but an even better listener, Ann will be greatly missed by them.

Ann is survived by sister Veronica who lives in the Midlands. Despite not having her own children, Ann was a great aunt and friend to niece Rachel and nephews David and James. Nothing was too much trouble for Ann when it came to her family, who will miss her very much. 

Ann joined Home-Start St Helens in the year 2000, also serving periods as treasurer and chair, seeing the charity through many changes that benefitted the families who lived in St Helens and needed support.

Ann has left 'a fabulous legacy'

In a tribute shared with the Star by Ann’s family, Annemarie Houghton, manager at Home-Start St Helens, said: “For someone to be involved within an organisation for such a significant period of time showed commitment in itself.  Ann had seen Home-Start St Helens through the many ups and on occasions downs of charity life.   

"During these times Ann always remained calm, helped to come up with solutions and embraced change.

"Ann always had the ability to put any volunteer or family she has met at ease with her words of encouragement, warmth and of course dry wit.

“Ann held Home-Start St Helens very close to her heart and was a great believer in the difference we made to local families.”

Meanwhile, a tribute from Ann Marr, chief executive at the NHS Trust, added: “Ann has truly left a fabulous legacy that will provide five-star patient care for many years to come.

“She continued to take an interest in the hospital even when she was no longer a non- executive director.

"I will remember her as warm-hearted, with a great sense of humour, and a force to be reckoned with, who was always the voice of patients and staff.”

• Ann's funeral will take place at Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic Church, on Portico Lane at 11am on Wednesday, April 17, followed by a cremation at St Helens Crematorium at noon.