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I hope my legacy grows and grows – Dr Kate Granger

It’s that time again! The Kate Granger Compassionate Care Awards will be three years old in September and this year it would be so fantastic for the awards to grow even bigger.

Celebrating and rewarding colleagues in the NHS, who work incredibly hard every day to provide outstanding care to their patients, has an extremely powerful effect. There was such a palpable buzz around the awards presentation in 2015.

Lydia Jackson, last year’s individual winner, has gone on to apply for her nursing degree, using her award as a springboard to progress her career in caring.

Our team award winners ‘Harvey’s Gang’ have also been going from strength to strength, using the profile we raised for them to spread the scheme out to other hospitals and winning more prestigious awards.

Looking after another vulnerable human being is such an important job. Responding to someone else’s suffering in a way that helps is so vital to building therapeutic relationships in healthcare. The skills needed by the caring professions are varied and wide ranging but must always, in my opinion, be firmly based on compassion.

So, if you know an individual or a team doing a fabulous job providing compassionate care to the people they serve, then please consider nominating them. Last year we had around 100 exceptional nominations. We would be delighted if we could top that number this year. The wonderful aspect to these awards is that absolutely anyone could be shortlisted or win, no matter what level of experience or accomplishments.

I am embarking on further palliative chemotherapy at present for a recent progression in my cancer. It is, therefore, by no means certain that I will still be here to present the awards in person at NHS Expo in Manchester.

If I am then I look forward to seeing everyone there. And if I have died then I will be watching on from elsewhere feeling proud that of one of my legacies to the NHS is alive and well.

  • You can get updates on the Kate Granger Awards on Twitter at: #KGAwards16
  • Follow Kate’s latest updates on: #hellomynameis