Students at Ballakermeen have stated their case for a more fitting memorial to be built for Manx nurse Nellie Brennan.

The 12 and 13-year old (year 8) pupils undertook the project as part of the 2020 Year of the Nurse.

They presented their research to Health Minister David Ashford and nursing staff from Noble’s Hospital.

Students were then able to enquire about nursing as a career, and get information on nursing roles in the island.

Nellie Brennan, originally a washerwoman, played a pivotal role in the development of nursing in the island and tended to the sick and dying during the cholera outbreak that tore through the capital in the 1830s.

Many of the students argued that Nellie was deserving of a better memorial, with one calling her current grave in St George’s churchyard a ’disgrace’.

Another said: ’She should have had an award named after her, or a statue to show people how much she did for our community.’

Minister Ashford was pleased to tell them that a planned memorial garden at Noble’s Hospital would be named after her, and a sculpture of a washing mangel would be installed at the Keyll Darree training centre for nurses.

Mr Ashford told the students that they should be ’proud of having been a part of that’.

Speaking about the particular relevance of the story during the times of coronavirus, Mr Ashford said: ’The Cholera outbreak of 1832-1833 was severe, and could have gone a different way and spread across the island - so obviously that comes home to us at this current time with what we’ve had with Covid-19 this year’.

A number of students also said that they were considering nursing as a career choice after studying the story of Nellie Brennan, who several students described as ’a Manx Florence Nightingale’.

Speaking about the benefits of project, headteacher Adrienne Burnett said: ’They learn about our island and the people who have helped build it.

’They helped give us the grit and determination that’s so evident in people today, but also it does open up the career of nursing to them.’