IT'S not everyone who can say they truly enjoy their job, but Clatterbridge Cancer Centre's retiring Commissionaire certainly is among them.

For the last 25 years, Ted Dillon has greeted visitors and patients to the world-renowned facility.

His roles have been many, including stepping into Santa’s shoes as part of the entertainment for young patients at Christmas.

He was awarded an MBE in 2008 for his contribution to daily life at the centre and is due to retire next Thursday.

Looking back on his time at Clatterbridge, Ted – who lives with wife of 60 years Martha - told the Globe today: "I didn't realise how fast the last 25 years have gone.

"It's not everyone who gets up in the morning to do a job that they love. That's how I feel about my job.

"The real buzz for me is when visitors tell me they like the happy smiling reception they get here.

"If I could have picked a job when I left the forces this would have been it.

"The people who work here all the same. You have to be able to deal with patients in a certain way and everybody here has that ability.

"People ask me sometimes, how can you work in a cancer hospital?

"But they just don't realise how fantastic and determined the patients are here.

"I was once told that 'everybody here has cancer, but nobody feels they're any worse off than anybody else".

He joked: "If you go to a normal hospital, patients say 'I've got a broken leg' …. 'oh, I've got two', 'I've had a heart attack’… 'oh, I've had three'. They’re always trying to go one better.

"But at the cancer centre they are all going through the same thing and are so good.

"A lot of them are children who are amazing, having so much to cope with at such young ages.

"I always remember one little boy, Cameron, from Blackpool. He’s 12 now, but at the time he came here was two and took an instant liking to me.

"I used to put him in a wheelchair every day.

"He didn’t need a wheelchair but he wanted to go in a wheelchair and wanted to go in 'the hole' which was a lift that took him up for treatment and back to the ward.

"I’m Father Christmas every year. A former patient who was treated here when she was three came back to open the children’s play area.

"Her father told me that she went to Lapland to see Father Christmas and said 'that's not the real Father Christmas – he’s at Clatterbridge'. I couldn't get over it".

A former pupil of Birkenhead Institute, Ted joined the RAF when he was 15, staying with the force for 40 years, learning his trade as an aircraft electrician, working on Vulcans and Valliants.

He toured Cyprus and Malta and became a Nimrod crew chief.

Ted's forces career ended at RAF Sealand when he was 55 and he decided to do something else.

So in 1991 he joined the Corps Of Commissionaires in Liverpool - founded by Captain Sir Edward Walter, a retired officer of the 8th Hussars, in 1859 as a way to provide gainful employment for ex-servicemen on return from the Crimean War.

Ted started work at the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in 1992.

He recalled: "The oncology unit was part of Clatterbridge at the time.

"It was getting its own trust and wanted a commissionaire on the door.

"I always remember the director of nursing said to her husband 'I want a commissioner, but I don't want to put an advert in the paper'.

"They contacted the Corps of Commissionaires and I got the job.

"I'd been here for a year when they asked if I'd work for the hospital and not the Corps Of Commissionaires and I said 'yes, alright.

"When I was 65, they asked 'will you work until you're 70' and I said: 'yes, alright'.

"When I got to 70, they said 'Ted, we can't sack you because we’d be contravening the age discrimination act, so you can stay as long as you like.

"Now I'm 80, I've decided it's time to go".

Recalling some of the famous people he has met during his time, Ted said: "We had a visit from Prince Charles in 1992.

"He was visiting McMillan nurses.

"There were two children having treatment and one of them was very outspoken and they worried one of them would ask Charles about his ears.

"She asked him 'when was the last time you fell off your horse’?

"Well, Prince Charles head fell back and he started to laugh. because he couldn’t get over the fact that this child asked when he fell off his horse".

News of Ted's retirement was posted on social media about him retiring prompted messages of goodwill from ex patients.

Looking ahead to life in retirement, Ted said: "I'll take up golf again and hope to keep the job of Father Christmas.

"I'll do a bit of visiting my children and grandchildren, who live in different parts of the country. 

"We've got four children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, with a third due in September, so there'll be plenty of visiting to do," he laughed.

Andrew Cannell, chief executive of The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, said: "On behalf of The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust I would like to thank Ted for 25 years of  dedicated service.

"Often the first person they met on arrival at the centre, he has brought reassurance to tens of thousands of patients and their loved ones with kind words, support and humour.

"He embodies the values of the Centre and it has been a privilege to have him as part of the team for so many years.  

"Professional, helpful and knowledgeable, he will be missed by staff, volunteers and patients alike and we wish him a very happy retirement".

We wish you well for the future, Ted.