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This is Laura Witham, a 25-year-old radiographer from Ipswich, walking home in a snow storm after a 13-hour night shift.

When the photo was taken, on Thursday morning, Laura had walked for 3.5 miles and spent nearly two hours doing so. For a while, she had waited for a bus, but soon realised the roads were blocked and public transport was in shutdown.

Along the way, Laura texted her boyfriend James Pawsey, 33, a trainee physician associate who works with her at Ipswich Hospital. He doesn't do night shifts, so usually takes her to work and back in the car, but was completely stuck after a night of heavy snow.

James said he and Laura had been texting while she journeyed home. He knew when she was crossing the bridge, which is visible – though in a blizzard, only just – from their balcony.

He told the Mirror: "I'm always really proud of Laura, but seeing her walk 3.5 miles after a 13-hour night shift made me even more so.

(Image: Getty)

"When she's on nights, I usually pick her up when I wake up in the morning, but couldn't get the car out at all. It was stuck in masses of snow. All I could do was make her a hot chocolate when she got home.

"After work, she waited for a bus for a while, but we both realised none were running, so she had to walk for nearly two hours.

"She was up all night, but it's been a struggle for her to get to hospital and back all week, so just got on with it. On Wednesday night, we tried to drive in, but it was impossible."

Both Laura and James work for Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust. Laura's been a radiographer for four years, while James, a former hospital manager, is retraining as a physician associate.

Now a student, James' lectures have been cancelled, so he's been warm at home catching up on notes and studying. But Laura – like medical professionals across the UK – must carry on as normal.

James said Ipswich Hospital has been "incredibly busy". He told us that while staff there continue to provide safe and effective care, the treacherous weather conditions haven't helped what was already a hectic environment.

"All my lectures were cancelled so I've been at home this week," James told Mirror Online. "In hospitals, it's obviously much harder to discharge patients safely in the snow.

"I know everyone [at Ipswich Hospital] will still be treating patients like any other day, but there's no doubt the demand has increased and it's even busier at the moment.

"Laura has been going in as usual – it's just taken her a little longer!"

Laura's still on night shifts for the next few days. This morning, she was able to get a bus to the town centre, so "only had to walk for 20 minutes". She's back at work tomorrow. Thankfully, the snow in East Anglia is beginning to clear.

Laura is just one example of a huge number of NHS staff going above and beyond.

(Image: James Pawsey)

Elsewhere, hazardous conditions remain. In many parts of the country, medical professionals are staying in hospital overnight to ensure they can provide care to patients.

Nurses at Sunderland Royal Hospital were praised by the public after sleeping over to make their shifts the next day.

In Fife, meanwhile, lead nurse Sally O'Brien said 13 of her staff stayed overnight at Stratheden Hospital to work the early shift.

NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens today praised workers for their selfless commitment: "In these adverse circumstances, NHS staff have taken extraordinary measures to get into work and look after patients.

"Once again the NHS is showing that we are there for people when they need us and that's all down to our staff, so a huge thank you to everybody across the NHS who is going the extra mile for people at this highly pressurised time.

"We've seen examples across the country, including Kat, a paramedic from London Ambulance service, who cycled to her blue light emergencies when the vehicles couldn't get through."

It's not just in the NHS. Crews from across the emergency services are going to extraordinary lengths to keep Britain safe.

In Louth, a firefighter set off the day before his shift to trek 14 miles in freezing conditions to get into work.

Dan Cheetham, 28, trudged through foot-deep snow from Binbrook to Louth fire station in Lincolnshire a day early because he knew he would not be able to use his car in the treacherous conditions on Friday morning.

He said: "It took about just over four hours in the end.

"The snow wasn't too bad, it was only a foot deep in most places, but it was the drifts that were about five to six foot that were the worst.

"Apart from that it was a walk in the park."