LOWER Bourne resident Sarla Noon has retired after working as a chiropodist for more than 30 years.

In that time, she became known as one of the area’s most reliable medical professionals.

Having started her practice from scratch in 1986, Sarla, a mother of three, was one of Farnham’s few chiropodists that carried out home visits.

As her reputation grew, she enlarged her practice to include Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice and almost every care home in the area, as well as treating individual patients in her surgery.

Sarla studied biological sciences at university, where she met her husband Robert, before completing a postgraduate degree in information science.

The couple lived in Mexico for three years, where their first child, James, was born in 1979.

In 1986, they settled in Farnham. Sarla retrained as a chiropodist, taking the course because “my heart told me to, not my head”.

She continued: “I didn’t consider it as a job, more a lifestyle. To know that the treatment has been effective and to see people walking out with a smile on their face and no discomfort is the best compliment.”

Her second son Chris said: “The home phone has rung almost incessantly for over 32 years with patients seeking to book appointments. I’m so proud of what she has achieved, but relieved she’s finally hanging up the scalpel.”

Remembering her mum packing the car with her chiropody case, footstool and white coat, Camilla said: “She would work all day, sometimes without a break for lunch, before picking me up from school and having the occasional home surgery visit in the evenings before making us all dinner.”

She said that Sarla’s patients are sure to miss her and that “a shopping trip to Farnham often took twice as long because we always bumped into people who knew her and wanted to chat in the supermarket”.

During her retirement, Sarla plans to join a charity in Medstead and travel to see her family, as well as continuing yoga, swimming, tennis, singing in Rowledge Choir and learning Spanish.

She said: “I’d like to thank everybody for their gifts, flowers, presents and best wishes for my future. It has been a pleasure treating everybody.”