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The runners up this year were Laura Gratton and Sonal Patel – children’s oncology nurses in the Whittington Health Trust. They have often gone above and beyond their duties to ensure that children going through cancer treatment receive all the help and support which they need. They are pictured below with their certificate:
Our winner this year was Maria Leadbeater, who runs a Cancer Information and Support Service Centre service at the Royal Chesterfield Hospital. In the course of her work, Maria became aware that terminal cancer patients with dependent children were not able to access help with talking to their children about what was happening. In consultation with other staff in the hospital library service, she developed bespoke materials to help them do just that.
Maria writes: I did not actually know of Fiona’s work when I submitted my application but since reading about her and her work makes this extra special for me. I’ve been fortunate to have worked with some amazingly helpful medical librarians during studying and getting evidence for work proposals etc. and when I moved to Chesterfield Royal Hospital 2 years ago I met this library team who helped on a couple of literature searches. As a result of this one of the librarians who had helped with the searches asked if I would be interviewed as part of her Masters work which was on outcomes of the outcomes of Medical Libraries work with patient services. After we did her interview I mentioned the service for parents with advanced cancer and she was keen to help find and review possible resources which I now use to back up the advice given to parents.
Colleagues at the hospital cannot speak highly enough of Maria’s work, nor the difference it makes to families and children at this hardest of times. Maria is hoping to use the award to undertake some studies on cancer and nutrition, and also to attend an oncology conference. The day after the award, she put up this display in the Information Service where she works:
It is to encourage the pursuit of such excellence that the Fiona Fund and the Fiona Littledale Award were created – and we couldn’t be happier.