A MEMORIAL garden to a physiotherapist has opened just yards from where she worked.

Kim Zouhar, 53, died in August last year just two months after she was named as West Essex Primary Care Trust's employee of the year.

A memorial garden at her former workplace, Orchard Day Unit, at St Margaret's Hospital, in Epping, has now been opened by her partner Chris Lewis in the presence of former colleagues, patients and friends.

As well as opening the gardens Mr Lewis presented a cheque for £1,350 to Dr Julian Singer, consultant oncologist at the Epping Breast Unit, to support its work.

The money was raised from donations made after Ms Zouhar's death.

Mr Lewis said: “She was a fantastically positive person. She never moaned during the seven years she had cancer. She never complained.”

During her time as day therapy services manager at St Margaret's, Ms Zouhar, from Bishop's Stortford, established a rapid access clinic, modernised day hospital services and established groups to support people with long term conditions.

West Essex Community Health Services' managing director Vince McCabe paid tribute to her dedication to patients calling her “an absolutely exceptional person”.