Life before retirement
I worked for nearly 30 years as a consultant in a busy district general hospital (DGH), first at Ealing Hospital then at Wexham Park Hospital, Slough, juggling clinical work, management roles and a fairly useless attempt at work-life balance! Six months before retirement, I  job-shared with a new consultant, who became full time as her youngest started school. This worked brilliantly, allowing a thorough handover of my long-term patients, especially children with HIV who I cared for. Working part-time renewed my taste for life outside the NHS!
Early years of retirement
Two months in Australia was an excellent ‘cold turkey’ by the end of which I had almost forgotten where the hospital was! I kept an honorary contract doing monthly teaching sessions in our new skills lab. I worked briefly in a hospital in Uganda, and taught ‘Safe Obstetrics’ in the Gambia, Malawi and Namibia.
I joined a small chamber choir and took singing lessons again which I hadn’t done since undergraduate days. It was lovely to have time to spend with our two daughters and six grandchildren. 
Major change of direction
At the start of the pandemic, I re-registered with the General Medical Council (GMC), but was not needed on our local children’s ward which was eerily quiet. Now in my 70s, I was in the group initially advised to stay home for 12 weeks: having been involved in pandemic planning for swine flu in 2008, this seemed a sensible precaution. But when advice for the high risk to stay home suddenly turned into mandatory school closures and whole population lockdown, I quickly became concerned. We were told schools would be closed for three weeks, but this turned to six and then nine. My offers of help to my daughters were rejected because they were led to believe this would put me at risk.
By May 2020, I joined the newly formed parents’ and grandparents’ group, UsForThem, campaigning to get schools reopened. By autumn 2020, masks were introduced in secondary schools despite an acknowledgement this would make teaching and learning more difficult. Asymptomatic testing led to whole classes being sent home for one child with a positive test result. Children’s needs were subverted for the protection of older adults such as myself.
In January 2021, I joined a new group, the , as their paediatric spokesperson. My campaigning efforts moved up a notch in February 2021, when I saw a drug company advertising for children to join a UK trial despite no adult long term safety data: four weeks later, the first fatalities from clotting problems (VITT) were reported in young adults. By April 2021, I convened a group of experienced health professionals and academics concerned about mRNA vaccines for healthy children. We wrote our first letter to the MHRA in May 2021, and have written over 30 open letters since. Most recently, I have been asked to provide a witness statement to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry (Module 4, Vaccines and therapeutics).
The future 
At some point, I sincerely hope to return to a more relaxed retirement, but meanwhile I understand that being retired, it is much easier to speak out where I have seen ethical and clinical necessity. I have spoken to many health professionals across all specialties, who have been concerned for their job security if they were to openly express their reservations about the pandemic management.
If any paediatricians wish to know more, please email me (Rosamond Jones) via press@hartgroup.org.