Woodbridge quadruplets follow mother into NHS careers

Quadruplets have followed in their mother's footsteps, with all four joining the NHS.

Their mother, Joby Shibu Mathew, from Woodbridge, Suffolk, is a nurse at Ipswich Hospital.

Daughters Anjel, Aneetta, Aleena and Aneesha, 21, completed their nursing training placements and have graduated.

Three are working as fully qualified nurses at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge and one is a physiotherapist at Kettering General Hospital.

The Shibu Mathew family are originally from Kerala, in southern India, where all four daughters were born in 2000.

Joby and her husband Shibu moved to the UK in 2007 and their daughters followed in 2008.

"I completed my nursing degree in India and worked in India and Middle East for a few years," said Mrs Shibu Mathew.

"After moving to the UK, I had to complete my nursing degree again between 2014 and 2017, and I got a job at Ipswich Hospital as an oncology nurse."

She said her daughters were "always proud of their mum for completing a degree with all the struggles of raising children and her family", and they were "very fond of the health care sector", having had part-time jobs in the industry.

Anjel, Aneetta and Aleena, who work in Cambridge, graduated from the University of Suffolk on Thursday.

Anjel is working in a cardiology ward, Aneetta in a cardiac-thoracic surgery ward and Aleena is working in a sleep study ward.

Aneesha qualified as a physiotherapist at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, and now works in Kettering, in Northamptonshire.

"Me and Shibu are ever so proud of our daughters," Mrs Shibu Mathew said.

But she admitted they were not expecting to have four of them.

"We were told triplets, so Aneesha was the bonus baby - she was hiding - and she's always been a little bit naughty.

"We had three of everything, then suddenly my husband was running around trying to find the same clothes for our fourth baby.

"But my husband, their dad, is the pillar of our house - of our life," she said.

Working and studying during the pandemic had not been easy for any of them, she admitted.

"There has been ups and down in their lifetime but we are so proud of our girls for coming this far and achieving their dreams and careers."

She added: I'm very proud to be part of NHS England and they also followed in my footsteps.

"But I said they could choose [their careers] and they decided nursing was the best one."

Third-born daughter, Aleena, said their mother's hard work and experiences of being a nurse had guided them all.

"It was clear this was a challenging job, but we always heard about the good sides as well. It's been good going through everything together."

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