ANYONE drawn to a key role in influencing important changes in the way society is organised would envy Isobel Dale's CV.

It is difficult to imagine better credentials for her new post from April as a non-executive director of the new Worcestershire Community Mental Health Trust. She has had a lifetime of clinical work in the community, a long record of public service, a business qualification and top rank experience in health service management.

What her CV does not include are the equally relevant personal qualities and happenings in her life that equip her for the post.

Mrs Dale lives within a stone's throw of Kidderminster General Hospital.

Her approach to the challenge is both practical and optimistic and guided by 40 years' experience. "There is a job to be done. My role is to see the new arrangement bring the best possible health services to the county and I will also doing my best for Wyre Forest."

"I think the most important thing will be to build people's confidence but that is not something that will happen overnight. It will start when people have their own good experiences."

Mrs Dale's "training" started at aged eight during long months in isolation in a Scottish hospital with rheumatic fever. Mrs Dale, in tiptop health ever since and blessed with boundless energy, remembers vividly her "companions", the pine trees she could see through the window.

It might have put her off hospitals forever. In fact it cemented her school girl determination to be a nurse. "Perhaps it was because they made me better!"

She went on to do midwifery and then armed herself with a Health Visiting diploma and specialised in children and audiology.

Motherhood did not prevent her from continuing to study for further qualifications, including a nurse teaching and a management degree so she could "marry clinical experience with business acumen". "I cannot understand anyone who does not want to increase their knowledge in their work."

She climbed to a community service management position at Birmingham Children's Hospital and also became a health advisor to Birmingham Local Education Authority.

She has recently retired from her 23 year-long-post as a JP partly because of her new appointment but also to spend more time with her "always supportive husband" Chris. She hopes to improve as the "incompetent crew" on his yacht and enjoy her baby grandson and lifelong hobby of gardening.

She also intends to become a champion of anti-ageism. "The compassion and experience I bring into the work I do now I would never have had to offer 20 years ago."