The Christie Charity
Press release posted 18 October 2023
Staff at The Christie have been praised for their care, compassion, dedication and innovation in an awards ceremony at the specialist cancer hospital.
The Christie Colleague Awards saw various individuals and teams singled out in eight different categories such as clinical team of the year, behind the scenes team of the year, innovation and improvement, and contribution to equality and diversity.
For the first time ever, patients were also invited to nominate individuals they have encountered during their care at The Christie. Dozens of nominations were received in the ‘Acting with Kindness’ award. The winner was Decima Pigram, a haematology clinical nurse specialist. Decima is 29 and lives in Stockport with her husband Chris and one year old daughter Myla. Originally from Harrogate, she moved to Manchester 10 years ago.
She was nominated by patient Maxine Roscoe, who got to know Decima when she began treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia during lockdown in 2020. Maxine singled Decima out as a ‘constant presence who supported her every step of the way’ when she spent much of her time at The Christie in isolation away from family and friends.
Maxine said: “Decima went well beyond expectations during a really difficult time. She not only made an effort to connect with me, but also took the time to better understand me.
"Her presence infused the lonely room with qualities of friendship and helped me escape the depths of despair. Undoubtedly, she is a deserving winner of this award.”
In response to winning her award, Decima said: “I am truly humbled to win this award today, and its even more special that I was nominated by one of our patients. Thank you to Maxine for nominating me.”
The other winners at the celebratory event at the hospital were:
- Clinical team of the year: the acute ambulatory care team were praised for the work they do to make sure patients do not need to be admitted to hospital, enabling them to spend more time in their home environment with their families.
- Behind the scenes team of the year: our finance and business development team were praised for their clear focus on supporting the continued improvement of cancer services for our patients, whilst ensuring the long-term financial sustainability of The Christie and the NHS.
- Inspiring leader of the year: Daniel Holt, The Christie at Macclesfield, was described as a consistently visible leader who embodies The Christie values and ensures that staff follow in his example.
- Learner of the year: Laura McNab, lecturer practitioner, was praised for completing her PG Cert with a distinction, directly influencing her practice, and embedding her learning into her work to introduce improvements.
- Innovation and improvement award: our Prostate PSU team was praised for the work it has carried out with men to reduce the need for face-to-face appointments.
- Living our values award: Yvonne Rushton, a clinical based educator was praised as a shining example of dedication and compassion within our healthcare community, committed to the wellbeing of both staff and patients.
- Contribution to equality and diversity: Rahim Nyang, theatre practitioner, for his work with the army to improve the care provided to veterans and helping us to achieve the Veteran Aware Accreditation.
This is the first awards ceremony The Christie has held since the COVID-19 pandemic and was a fantastic opportunity for staff to come together and celebrate the hard work and dedication of everyone who works at The Christie.
Roger Spencer, chief executive at The Christie, said: “I wholeheartedly congratulate everyone who has received an award today, but also those shortlisted and nominated. I see every day that every single person at The Christie carries a commitment to provide the very best care and treatment. These winners today are the best demonstration we can give of how much our staff do day in day out to make a difference to our patients.”
All the winners were presented with a glass plaque marking their achievement and guests were treated to a plant-based afternoon tea following the ceremony, helping in our carbon-net zero goals for a greener NHS and aligning to our Christie behaviour of ‘We care for each other and our environment’.
