Radar Healthcare’s Heroes Awards 2021 – the winners!
20 December 2021
With the whirlwind nature of the healthcare industry, it can be difficult to pay gratitude to those who make this sector such a wonderful one to work in.
To remedy this, we created the Heroes Awards last year, giving everyone an opportunity to celebrate their colleagues from the NHS and care sectors, along with the people who have used digital technology to innovate and change their workplaces for good.
We are so glad to see that you were again ready to give your healthcare workers a big shout out for all their hard work over the last twelve months.
Thank you to everyone who wrote in with their nominations for our Radar Healthcare Heroes Awards. And at long last, we can now reveal the winners…
1st Place – Remilekun Oladunni, nominated by Kemi Madumere
Remi works within our service as a Team leader, providing care to 3 men with learning disabilities. Her dedication and absolute devotion to the men she supports has been unwavering and even more so during the pandemic.
She has found ingenious ways of supporting them and helping them to achieve their desires and goals. She often looks for activities to engage them in the community but also looking for ways for them to develop healthy habits, which for people with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour can be very difficult. Yet she is able to do with this compassion and empathy and her team follow her lead in doing so. The men also look up to her and respect her.
Each day regardless of how she is feeling or what she is going through, Remi is there for the men giving them her very best. Her dedication through it all has never waned.
Therefore, it is for this reason I would like to nominate Remi for the award because I’m not sure anyone would have had the sheer grit and strength to show up each day. She has a family she could have easily stayed home with who would look after but she states, “The men need me and during these turbulent times I don’t want them unsettled.”
I would love her dedication and love for the men that she supports recognized and the pride she takes in delivering her work. I would like her recognized for efforts as a team leader, as she is often leading by example, willing to put herself out there to ensure the care she delivers is at its very best.
2nd Place – Lauren & Chloe Kelly, nominated by Julie Cordner
Connected Health delivers a domiciliary care service across Northern Ireland, Ireland and GB. Two of our Northern Ireland Care Assistants, sisters Lauren and Chloe Kelly put themselves at risk to temporarily move in with a client, after she tested positive for COVID-19.
The pair from Limavady moved in with their client to ensure continuity of care and to safeguard their colleagues from virus exposure. She requires 24-hour help and only started receiving homecare in August 2020, having spent long periods in hospital.
The sisters have been hailed “true heroes” in their selfless attitudes and as an employer, we would love them to be recognised for their leadership, resilience and kindness.
Lauren and Chloe really have gone above and beyond in the delivery of care. They put the client first, as is the Connected Health ethos, but they went even further by placing themselves in harm’s way to deliver excellence in care.
One night their client suffered a seizure, but the fast actions of Lauren and Chloe served to reassure her family that she was in the safest hands.
The story of their heroic behaviour was covered by a BBC News programme as an example of COVID-19 heroism. The Minister of Health for Northern Ireland has even commended them personally for their selfless attitude.
3rd Place – Mary Shortman, nominated by Karin Brownlie
Mary left school and worked in a factory for ten years. After she had her children, she went to work in a newsagent for 12 years and whilst there began working at Clarendon Nursing Home, which belonged to Frenchay House. She was there for 15 years and then moved across to Frenchay House. In total, Mary has worked on the Frenchay House site for 34 years this year as a Care Assistant. Mary turns 80 this year and is still working 3 8-hour shifts per week without breaking a sweat and looking the most glamourous of all our care staff!
Mary is the matriarch of our home. There is not one thing or no one she does not know about Frenchay House If you need to know anything, especially anything historical Mary is the person to go to!
When I became the Manager of Frenchay House I had a long settling period and I cannot thank Mary enough for all her help, support, and compassion at that time, she led the way for me to become accustomed quickly to the routine here and has been a huge part of my journey.
Mary is absolutely wonderful with our residents. She is kind-hearted, compassionate, thoughtful, and endearing and they all love her. Mary does not stop from the minute she starts her shift to the end, and you will never hear her complain about hard work! Mary is an inspiration to me, my team, and the care sector in general: still working, still loving coming to work and still smiling throughout the whole pandemic! We are very fortunate to have such a knowledgeable and legendary member of staff. I feel that Mary’s long and continuing career in the care sector is very worthy of this nomination.
Thank you again to everyone who nominated their special people, and we wish everyone a wonderful 2022.
