When I started training as a journalist 10 years ago, I had a very specific idea of the shape my career would take. I decided I would end up a formidable editor of women’s glossies in the image of Miranda Priestly; a stylishly dressed bastion of consumer publishing spending my days writing about clothes, the beauty industry or, at a push, interior design.

Given that I am now writing this during my last week as the editor of C+D, it’s probably self-evident that this was not to be the case. Instead, I stumbled into pharmacy journalism, starting my career at C+D in the summer of 2014 after a two-week internship materialised into a full-time reporter position and a passion for the sector that I've come to know so well.

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I’ve spent the best part of a decade writing for the community pharmacy sector – finding out what makes you tick, championing you and telling your stories. It’s safe to say my career hasn’t turned out the way I expected it to all those years ago, and for that I am enormously grateful.

If it had, I wouldn’t have got to write about everything from supervised consumption services to reports that Tesco Pharmacy was lowballing locum pay, let alone the countless crime stories I’ve penned over the years. From the very beginning, community pharmacy has been a joy to write about.

You’re the plucky underdogs keeping primary care afloat (I won’t tell the GPs if you don’t), hardworking, resilient in the face of countless challenges and genuinely passionate about what you do. It’s been a privilege to serve you as C+D’s editor – the 18^th in the publication’s 164-year history – over the past four years. Thank you for all of the kindness and support you’ve shown the team over that time.

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C+D has seen many changes over the years, but two things have remained a constant; the enthusiasm and tenacity of our journalists and a genuine wish to do right by our readers. From campaigning to overturn a government policy excluding community pharmacists from COVID-19 life assurance to investigating crimes in pharmacies, we’ve always striven to cover the stories that really matter for our readers. That will always stay the same.

I’ve got mixed feelings as I prepare to leave C+D. On the one hand, I’m sad to be leaving such a brilliant team. But it’s comforting to know that I will be leaving the publication in such capable hands. A fabulous new editor is set to steer the ship from the early part of next year, with the might of the rest of the incredibly talented team behind them.

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On the other hand, I’m excited to be starting a new role at the health desk of a national newspaper in January, not least because it means I’ll be able to put my – now extensive – knowledge of community pharmacy to good use.

So it’s a fond farewell from me for now. Thanks, community pharmacy. It’s been a blast.

Beth Kennedy is the outgoing editor of C+D