VIPs everywhere at Shropshire hospitals awards night - with pictures
It was smiles all round as the unsung heroes that work in Shropshire's two acute hospitals were commended at an annual awards ceremony.
A record number of people were nominated for this year's Values in Practice (VIP) Awards, run by The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.
Founded to recognise and award the priceless helpers that work within the trust, dedicated teams and individuals were commended in a range of categories from the Rising Star of the Year, to the overall VIP Award winner.
Among the success on the night was Roger Turner, who was nominated by Shropshire Star readers to be the Volunteer of the Year – a category which received more than 1,000 votes.
Working in the Hamar Help & Support Centre in Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, Roger has created a number of videos to deliver to cancer patients prior to treatment.
The 78-year-old said: "I feel amazed first and foremost. Having seen the nominations I was up against, I didn't really think I stood a chance.
"But it is of course nice to be appreciated and, more to the point, I think this award isn't really just for me. It's for the whole team of people, the volunteers that agreed to appear in my videos for example, that helped make the videos become a reality."
Roger was nominated by Bernadette Reidy, who works in the Lingen Davies Centre in Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, just one of the areas Roger filmed for.
She said: "Roger created a film on chemotherapy and when I asked him to do one for radiotherapy, he did three.
"When cancer patients come through they are often bombarded with information, but actually being able to see what they are about to go through and to be able to experience it first through the videos that Roger creates brings so many advantages to them, and that's why I thought he just had to be nominated for the Volunteer of the Year Award."
Rachel Quartermaine was among the highly commended volunteers of the year for her tireless work in the neonatal unit, along with mother and daughter duo Jan and Anne-Marie Jones, who along with their canine friends Sacha, Lewis and Ziggy, provide patient therapy through their animals.
Inspirational
From saving the life of a baby in a hospital car park, to live streaming the funeral of an inpatient's wife so they could attend, the night of celebration heard countless stories from SaTH members, resulting in nine awards being handed out.
SaTH's Heart Assessment Team were awarded the Improvement of the Year Award, Emma Kay won the Rising Star of the Year Award, Charlotte Deakin came away with the Learner of the Year Award and Hannah O'Mahoney-Magee won the Inspirational Leader of the Year Award.
These winners were joined by Mary Beales who won the Behind the Scenes Award, the Dementia Team which won the Team of the Year Award, Nick Evans who won the Patient Experience Award and finally, the Critical Care Outreach Team which came home with the prestigious overall VIP Award.
SaTH chief executive Paula Clark said: "It's been an absolute pleasure to be able to take part in these awards and see all the great work that's been going on.
"This year we had an incredible 700 nominations. That's the biggest number of nominations the awards have had.
"That shows just how enthusiastic everyone is about these awards and how very keen they are to make sure those who deserve recognition get it."
Taking place at the Telford International Centre, the ceremony was preceded by SaTH's annual long service awards, for individuals marking 25 or 40 years of service within the NHS.
Mrs Clark added: "We also had our long service awards so today really is a remarkable day of celebrations."
Closing the ceremony, Ben Reid, chair of SaTH, said: "I was lucky enough to be apart of these awards last year and I was pretty blown away by that, but this year has surpassed that by many levels.
"I want to, on behalf of the board and all of the people we serve, say a really big thank you for all of the efforts that you've put in over the last year.
"We all know there's an awful lot of challenges facing us and a lot of things we need to change to move forward, but despite all of that we have got a proud record of delivering safe and quality care and that's because of the efforts of all of you.
"How many examples of going the extra mile do we have to gather to prove that. Tonight we've seen some really quite amazing stuff and everyone here and even those who are not should be very proud."
