Specialist nurse named as Cheshire Woman of the Year at NSPCC fundraising event
THE winner of this year's Cheshire Woman Of The Year award was announced at a luxury awards lunch. Categories for the awards; which is now in its 34th year; celebrate professional achievement, community service and personal courage of women across the Cheshire and Wirral, and more than 2,000 women have been honoured in the awards' history. The event has raised almost £300,000 for children's charities through sponsorship over the last 34 years, and this year all funds will go directly to the NSPCC to support children and families in Cheshire and Wirral. This year's winner was announced as Pauline Finlay, a specialist Nurse Prescriber working in a small practice looking after about 400 homeless patients in Chester.
Sylvia Cheater MBE, Chair of the Cheshire Woman
Award Society, said:- "Although affluent, Chester has a
relatively large homeless population and many of them find it hard
to interact with other parts of the healthcare system. Pauline works
above and beyond her role to facilitate the care for her patients,
including:- accompanying vulnerable people to Hospital and other
services which otherwise they probably wouldn't attend. She has
sympathy and empathy for her homeless patients, she visits local
Hospitals to see patients and supports them through the criminal
justice system; which is often a very stressful process. As well as
all this, she also does all the traditional chronic disease
management that you would expect of a nurse practitioner. Like many
NHS staff, she is devoted to her job and takes every opportunity to
provide care and attention way beyond the delivery of clinical
service."
Organisers of the Cheshire Woman Award are currently looking for
sponsors for next year's event. To find out more, including:- how to
nominate someone for the 2023 award, go to:-
CheshireWomanAward.Org.UK or
email:-
Info@CheshireWomanAward.Org.UK.
To find out how you can support the NSPCC, through:- fundraising,
volunteering, donating or by sharing out messages, go to:-
NSPCC.Org.UK.
Mentor sessions to inspire Lancashire's next engineers
STUDENTS in West
Lancashire are being inspired to become the county's next generation
of top engineers, mathematicians and scientists. Pupils at Schools
and Colleges across Lancashire, including:- at Lathom High School,
St Bedes and West Lancashire College have been taking part in a
mentoring programme with some of the Region's leading STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering and Maths) employers to encourage students
to think about a career in the industry once they leave School.
The sessions, funded by Future U, include:- STEM Ambassador mentors
from companies including:- BAE Systems, Eric Wright Group,
GlaxoSmithKline and Network Rail. STEM Ambassadors are volunteers,
typically from industry, who want to share their passion to inspire
the next generation of the STEM workforce. Students have been able
to speak with STEM Ambassadors to hear their stories about starting
a career in the industry.
The sessions are designed and delivered by local education company
STEM1st and allow the students to learn about the possibilities of
STEM careers and hear 1st hand what they need to do to study for a
job in the sector.
The students link with mentors who can advise them on career routes
and give them an insight into the industry. The sessions have proved
popular so far, with most students saying they had learnt new skills
and given them useful information and advice on how to qualify for
the jobs, such as University life.
Susan Hargreaves, Director of STEMfist Ltd, said:- "The
mentoring programmes are invaluable in helping young people develop
lifelong skills; teamwork, leadership, communication, etc. as they
seek to reach their full potential. The opportunity to meet and
question real people doing real jobs adds value to the experience,
providing a bank of knowledge from a credible source to support more
informed choices in the future."
Emma Deeks, Senior Outreach Officer at Future U, said:- "The
feedback from students and teachers has always been very positive
and the appeal of the mentoring has been shown to go beyond those
purely interested in classic STEM careers. For this academic year,
students are also being offered wraparound activities delivered by
our partner Colleges and Universities. We hope they will allow
learners to consider the potential progression routes available to
them if they choose to pursue a career in STEM, as well as allowing
them to utilise some of the skills and ideas they have learnt during
the mentoring programme."
Since launching in 2017, Future U has held more than 1000 events and
activities to support over 27,000 young people to think about
applying for University. The programme works alongside the county's
4 Universities and 10 Colleges throughout Lancashire and has
continued to deliver activities online during the lockdown.
In addition to promoting the benefits of University to prospective
students, the programme also supports young people to understand
student finance, living away from home and raise career ambitions to
develop the next set of skilled workers for the county.
Future U is part of the national Uni Connect Programme, funded by
the Office for Students, and continues to support School pupils
across Lancashire to encourage more young people to think about
higher education and future careers. The project involves
institutions and organisations across the county including:- the
University of Central Lancashire, Lancaster University, Edge Hill
University and the University of Cumbria.
Lancashire's Future U works with a network of Schools, in addition
to Colleges, higher education providers and local agencies to create
tailored activities to meet the needs of students for now and the
future.
Its list of partners includes:- Blackburn College, Blackpool 6th
Form College, Blackpool and the Fylde College, Burnley College, Edge
Hill University, Inspira, Kendal College, Lancaster University,
Myerscough College, Nelson and Colne College, Preston's College,
STEM1st, Runshaw College, The Lancashire Colleges, University of
Central Lancashire, University of Cumbria, West Lancashire College.