The voting is now open for our People’s Choice Award, with the winner being announced at our annual Time to Shine Awards in November.
This award will recognise individuals or teams who have made a significant impact to a person's life.
The best nominations have been shortlisted and now we need your help to decide our winner.
Take a look at our final five nominees below and choose your winner. You have until midnight on 10 October to cast your vote.
Helen Englefield is an Occupational Therapist and works within our Rapid Intervention and Treatment Team in the Bay.
Helen recently sought out the opportunity to travel to Nepal (with an occupational therapy volunteer organisation) to build her occupational therapy skills, for the benefit of others both in Nepal and back in her LSCft role.
She took six weeks out to travel solo to a country she had never been before, with a completely different culture and level of amenities.
Helen’s role in Nepal was to use her OT skills in a school, particularly focussing on children with special needs. As an example, she worked with one young boy who she helped to gain the biggest smile ever, simply by enabling him to be more involved with his class by sitting at a table with his peers (due to physical disabilities and low staffing numbers this hadn’t been possible), to then being able to use a pen to make patterns and join in – perhaps seemingly small changes to others but very big for him.
She then used her knowledge and skill to build on this and made contact with a physio who is now going to support the school with assessments for this boy and others there, which could make a massive difference to them staying in education.
What she has learnt has been so unique, and she has brought this back to share with all of her team, as well as her clients who no doubt benefit from her increased confidence, her continued positive attitude, ability to work under all sort of pressures and barriers, and thinking outside the box.
One of three people who nominated her, said:
“Helen’s positive attitude to life and ability to adapt and work within whatever means available to her has been truly tested and shown by this experience. Helen is just inspirational!”
Laura Milner, District Nurse (Central and West)
Whilst undertaking a bank shift for Pennine Out of Hours Service and travelling to a patient visit, Laura witnessed a traumatic traffic collision of a pedestrian and car in the middle of the night.
The pedestrian appeared to have sustained extensive traumatic body and head injuries. Despite Laura being alone at that moment, she did not hesitate to stop, summon emergency service support and maintain the pedestrian’s safety until help could arrive. This included keeping the pedestrian calm, whilst administering first aid support.
Once the pedestrian was in the safe hands of the ambulance service, Laura collected herself and continued with her visits, including symptom management for a patient at the end of their life. Al"hough Laura expressed her worry about the extent of the pedestrian’s injuries, and what the future may hold for them, Laura was delighted several weeks later, to be on duty when a referral to district nursing for this pedestrian was received for nursing support following their discharge home.
Following receipt of this referral, Laura did have the opportunity to visit the pedestrian as a patient under the care of the district nursing service and share an emotional reunion.
Stacey Batty who nominated Laura, said:
"Laura is an exceptionally compassionate, caring nurse. The above is only one example of how she cares and is responsive to meet the needs of others. Her modest resilience and commitment to others, both inside and outside of work is highly commendable and I am proud to have her working alongside me in the District Nursing Service.”
On hearing about her nomination, Laura said:
“I am overwhelmed and humbled by this nomination. This was an awful event that thankfully had a positive outcome for the patient. I feel I was in a unique position that I was able to visit this patient when she was referred into the District Nursing Service a few months after her accident. It was an emotional visit for the patient and myself and I was so pleased to see the progress she had made from her extensive and life threating injuries. I am just so happy that this lady has another chance at life, and I am proud that I was able to provide some emergency support in a traumatic event.”
Outside of his work at the Trust, as a volunteer community first responder, Lee is the first person on scene in a medical emergency to provide life-saving care before an ambulance arrives.
Community first responders are despatched at the same time as an ambulance but due their close proximity they often arrive first. Lee started his volunteering role in 2014 and now has over 3,000 hours under his belt, giving him valuable experience to also undertake the role of team leader in the Community Resuscitation Team.
Lee gives his time freely, managing the Volunteer Team and attending life threatening situations such as chest pain, cardiac arrests, suicide attempts and medical emergencies where he provides lifesaving support in the worst moments of people’s lives.
During 10 years of volunteering, Lee has helped to save many lives, but one incident in particular resulted in him receiving an ‘Outstanding Contribution to Volunteering Award’ at West Lancashire Borough Council’s Annual Volunteer Awards.
Lee was first on scene at a cardiac arrest and initiated CPR ahead of the emergency ambulance crew and incoming air ambulance.
After 40 minutes, the patient was conscious and breathing and on the way to A&E and they’ve since gone on to lead a full and active life – without Lee this would not have been possible.
Colleague Mark Wardman, who nominated Lee, told us:
“Lee remains modest about his volunteering and his achievements, however I believe he should be recognised and as such I’m proud to nominate him for the People’s Choice Award.”
On hearing about his nomination Lee said:
“I’m shocked to be nominated for this award and incredibly thankful for the recognition. I am proud to be a volunteer for the Ambulance Service and I get a great sense of achievement and pride from helping people at the most difficult and often distressing times. I don’t have direct patient contact within my role at LSCft, but volunteering gives me transferable skills which I can use in my role in the Clinical Education Team.”
Back in February, Paul temporarily left his role helping children and families in Barrow and Kendal behind to fly to over 6,000 miles to Cambodia in Southeast Asia.
Paul travelled with UK-based charity Transforming Healthcare Cambodia (THC) UK, which provides education, training and clinical expertise to improve healthcare in Cambodia. He was able to help years after the genocide of almost 2m people during the Pol Pot communist regime, going on a two-week working sabbatical to share his skills and knowledge.
It seems a far cry from the work he does in South Cumbria but Paul soon discovered that there were some common themes and he was able to share his experience with overseas medical and therapy colleagues to help explore families’ generational trauma as a result of the genocide.
He also said the experience gave him something, explaining:
“I’ve been able to bring back learning about generational trauma, which impacts people in the UK too through things like poverty, unemployment, abuse and discrimination.”
Since returning back to work, Paul has been determined to pass on what he saw and learned during his trip, delivering presentations to other professional networks and colleagues. He was pleased to hear that thanks to what he was able to teach his counterparts in Cambodia, one of the hospitals he visited have now greatly expanded their Children and Young People’s Mental Health Service. A huge step in the right direction!
The team at Ormskirk units
Tracey Green is a valued health care support worker who has worked at the Scarisbrick inpatient unit in Ormskirk for five years. On 19 November 2023, Tracey came to work as usual, however she was later found slumped and unconscious by her colleague who raised the alarm. Members of her team, as well as those working on the 136 suite and nearby Lathom ward, commenced CPR and contacted the emergency services. Performing CPR on a patient who is at risk of imminent death is hard, but to perform it on a friend and colleague is even harder. As the team around her battled with their worry and fear, they were able to work together to give her the emergency response that she needed, as well as managing the busy ward, and distressed patients. Due to the quick action and clinical skill from Tracey’s colleagues, Tracey received the care and treatment she required in a timely manner. This swift action meant that not only did Tracey survive, but she was able to have oxygen maintained through her circulation which prevented the deterioration of her vital organs. Tracey’s colleagues cared for Tracey, and helped each other through this traumatic time, with other members of staff coming in to work early to offer their support.
Matron Victoria Briggs, said:
“Tracey and her family would like to thank all those involved in saving her life. I am so proud of you all and the caring and compassionate response you showed that day is typical of all the colleagues at Scarisbrick. You are all true heroes and deserve recognition for this extraordinary achievement.”
Those involved on the day were: Preethi Sujith, Phil Bailey, Regan Stockley, Lian Edington-Lyon, Rachel Fairhurst, Garry Green, Jo Hamer, Adam Murray, Colin Pennington and Beth Hollinrake.
Vote for the team at Ormskirk units
You have until midnight on 10 October to cast your vote.
