NHS nurse reveals her joy at finding engagement ring lost for two and a half years

An NHS nurse has described how she “cried with happiness” after finding her engagement ring two-and-a-half years after she lost it in the garden.

And the timely find has helped to give the nurse an emotional boost as she treats patients for coronavirus.

Alison Brown, who is currently training as an advanced clinical practitioner, lost her ring around 30 months ago while hanging clothes on the washing line at her home in Kent.

Her husband Steve, 42, said his wife was “absolutely heartbroken” after realising the ring was lost.

But, a stroke of luck while gardening saw the nurse reunited with her treasured ring.

“Last year we dug up a huge amount of our garden to do the patio,” Mr Brown told PA news agency.

“We searched again but couldn’t find anything, but that soil went onto one of our vegetable patches.

“[On Sunday] I was mowing the grass and she came running over screaming. I thought she’d chopped half of her foot off with the shovel.”

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But the cause of the screaming wasn’t pain but in fact joy at stumbling across her lost ring, completely by chance.

“I am always optimistic, that’s my nature. I just knew one day I would find it,” Alison told PA.

“I believe in destiny. It was amazing, I screamed so much. Then I cried with happiness, feeling faint with emotion.”

The nurse said the timely discovery would help provide her with a boost to continue her work treating coronavirus patients.

“I felt blessed to find it, yet guilty I was happy at a time when so many are suffering in the world,” she said.

“Something I’m witnessing first hand.”

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Mrs Brown said that her current work in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic is “something in my 20 years I’ve never experienced”, adding “this is demanding all our knowledge, skills, resilience and teamwork to plan and cope with a destructive invisible enemy.

“Finding my ring has given me even more strength and positivity.”