Last month British Prime Minister Theresa May said that people should be able to speak out about their faith at work “in the same way you might talk about sport, hobbies and family life” adding that “Christians should ‘jealously guard’ their right to speak out about their faith … our Christian heritage is something we can all be proud of.”

Unfortunately for Sarah Kuteh, a nurse at Darent Valley hospital in Dartford, Kent, her employers didn’t get the memo.

Sarah Kuteh, a 15-year career nurse, primarily in the intensive care unit but more recently in the pre-op department, was fired earlier this year when she spoke about her faith to patients in the course of filling out pre-operation paperwork or offered to pray for them prior to surgery. When Kuteh asked the patient about their faith as part of the paperwork, it sometimes led to questions about her own faith. Kuteh didn’t hesitate to share. “I discussed my religion with a patient and how I’ve found Jesus Christ and how much peace I have — especially when patients come to me feeling really, really devastated sometimes. I’ve had to reassure them, based on the joy and peace that I really have found in the Lord.”

Kuteh loves nursing because it gives her “that opportunity just to step into the patient’s shoes for that moment while they’re there.” During the course of her job, she goes over the pre-operative assessment papers, making sure they are filled out correctly. One question asks the patient to state their religion. Sometimes they would want to talk about their religion with Kuteh and occasionally Kuteh would offer to pray for them just before surgery. Nursing, for Kuteh, is not just about caring for the patient physically. She says “It’s about holistically looking at every aspect that involves that patient’s care — and religion is one of them.”

One day, Kuteh’s manager came into her office and told her she’d received some complaints from patients about Kuteh having religious conversations with them. She was warned not to talk with patients about her faith, but the next day, she received a letter from that same manager, telling her she could “have some religious discussion with the patients, or if the patients ask for it,” she could speak about her faith. From that moment on, Kuteh asked patients if they were comfortable talking about their faith during the completion of the questionnaire — most of them were.

She was investigated, however, and barred from bringing any witnesses about her nursing capabilities or her character. She was unable to view the complaints about her and was therefore unable to respond. She was fired from her job in August. Kuteh was in tears as she described to The Daily Mail the humiliation of being escorted from the hospital that day. “It was embarrassing for me — and painful after all I had done in my years as a nurse. I was told I couldn’t even speak to my colleagues. All I had done was to nurse from my heart. How could it be harmful to tell someone about Jesus?”

Now Kuteh is now suing for wrongful termination because she believes “it’s a very punative action that was taken,” after 15 years of exemplary nursing and co-workers willing to state that she was “a brilliant nurse,” who brought “a different flair” to the unit. Kuteh is represented in her case by the Christian Legal Centre and has claimed that her “disciplinary process was flawed as she was not initially shown the complaints.”

PM Theresa May’s recent comments that “Christians should not be afraid of speaking freely about their faith at work and in public places” may help bolster Kuteh’s ongoing case. David Landrum, Director of Advocacy for Evangelical Alliance, assisted with the report that PM May referenced. He hopes that the report will encourage others, like Kuteh, to speak up. “The lost need the gospel, so we need to be intentional about sharing it,” he said. “We hope that [the report] will inform followers of Christ about the freedoms we have to do this, and encourage confident and fruitful evangelism in every area of public life. Freedom, in every sense of the word, depends on it. So let’s speak up.”

As for Kuteh, she doesn’t have any plans to stop. “How could telling people about Jesus Christ really be harmful to any patient?”