While most local people will be resting and enjoying the holiday on Christmas Day, around 700 staff at Stepping Hill Hospital and local community NHS services will still be busy at work and caring for patients.

Some of them will be physiotherapists, including Su O’Brien who will be working at the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on Christmas day.

Su has been at Stepping Hill Hospital for six years, and has worked the majority of Christmas Days over that period. On the ICU her duties include ensuring patients are receiving the oxygen supply they need, clearing their airways, and maintaining their respiratory system.

The ICU has some of the most poorly patients at the hospital, and during Christmas they will be away from their families. Su says she and her team are proud to care for patients these patients at Christmas, and that they do they best they can to keep a happy atmosphere on the unit. For those patients who are alert and able, they make sure they have Christmas lunches, music, gifts and games.

Su will celebrate with friends and family on Boxing Day instead, and says she doesn’t mind as it gets her out of the cooking!  

You can watch Su alongside other `Christmas Heroes` on the Manchester Evening News feature page here. Su is second in the video and appears at 1:20.