A proud patient had her wish granted by her very own community fairy godmother who managed to colour co-ordinate compression stockings to ensure she looked her best for a very special wedding.

Ionia Stevens’ granddaughter Charlotte got married at West Midlands Safari Park in July and being the glamourous grandmother she is, Ionia did not want her bandages to ruin the overall look of her outfit.

She has to wear compression dressings due to an ulcer on her left leg and attends Beechdale Wound Clinic in Walsall twice a week to have it dressed.

To help Ionia, who lives in Walsall, staff at Beechdale Wound Clinic helped source compression hosiery that would match her wedding outfit, for the big day.

“It made such a huge difference to me, “the 82-year-old said.

“The whole wedding was brilliant, and we had the most wonderful time celebrating. It had to be postponed numerous times due to COVID-19 so to finally see her have her wedding day was fantastic. Having the special stockings that matched my outfit made me feel great.

“The staff at Beechdale Health Centre are so lovely – they are more like angels. I look forward to seeing them.”

Karen Tromans, Assistant Practitioner, and Jo Rowntree, Community Staff Nurse, at Beechdale went above and beyond to help Ionia be wedding ready. Karen worked her magic to find the right coloured hosiery.

Karen said “We first started seeing Ionia last year after she caught her heel on her leg and as a result had a large wound on her left leg. She comes twice a week to have it dressed.

“From when I first met Ionia I could tell she was a proper character, so friendly and very fashion conscious.

“She told me about her granddaughter’s wedding at the Safari Park and asked if there was a different type of dressing she could wear as the plain brown stockings usually supplied would look terrible with her wedding outfit.

“I did some investigating and found some compression hosiery she could wear for the day that we could order in any colour – so we went for navy to match her outfit. A week before the wedding we had a trial run to check everything was OK. We tried the shoes she had bought and checked the dressings and the compression hosiery to make sure the wound wouldn’t leak through.

“The trial was a success and Cinderella could now go to the ball!

“We are so thrilled Ionia had a magical day and we were glad to help.”