A porter who brought his DJ system in to entertain paediatric patients and a compassionate senior physiotherapist were the winners of our You Made a Difference awards in October.
Kieron joined CUH as a porter in November 2014. He recently changed to day shifts to spend more of his personal time on his passion, DJing. In work, Kieron often works in the emergency department.
Extracts from Kieron’s nomination, which was submitted by a colleague, said:
Kieron makes patients smile, laugh and forget about the daunting feeling of being in hospital - even if just for a few minutes.
This is especially noticable of our paediatric patients whilst he is working in the emergency department.
Kate Gray, portering supervisor, said: “Having worked closely with Kieron for a number of years, I have always found him to be brilliant with patients and visitors to the Trust. He helps them feel relaxed during worrying times.”
Kieron demonstrated how diverse porters are when he contributed to Play in Hospital Week 2023. Kieron brought his DJ deck system to ward D2 and spent time with the children showing them how to cue and mix tracks.
Kate went on to say: “It doesn’t surprise me that Kieron was happy to take part in the Play in Hospital Week and I’m sure he’d do it again and again.”
Kieron said of the opportunity to get involved in Play in Hospital week in October 2023: "I wanted to support and provide a service for the Play in Hospital week to young people to give them something else to think about, another focus, such as being a DJ.
"I am self-taught, spending endless amounts of time studying being a DJ, so to be allowed the opportunity to give something back meant a lot to me.
"I brought my own equipment in and the young children had a go and I taught them the absolute basics of being a DJ, talking to them about my experiences of being a DJ.
It was amazing to see the children smiling and be part of something so important.
Vicki started her career at CUH in June 2018 and was part of the physiotherapy workforce redeployed to the adult intensive care unit during the Covid pandemic and also spent six months on rotation to Royal Papworth Hospital in October 2021.
Vicki commenced her rotation to acute paediatrics in June 2023 providing physiotherapy care to children across a wide variety of specialities.
Her enthusiasm, passion and commitment were immediately evident and she has been an invaluable member of the team.
Vicki has the ability to put children of all different ages at ease, to engage them and their families, with their physio programmes, and to motivate them to achieve their goals using personalised and fun-filled activities.
Although Vicki’s nomination was for a specific patient, Vicki goes above and beyond for every one of her patients and is a highly deserving winner of this award.
Extracts from Vicki’s nomination, which was submitted by the relative of a patient, said:
“Vicki has looked after our daughter since she was admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) with a traumatic brain injury and an extensive list of physical injuries six weeks ago.
“Throughout our journey she has shown professionalism, genuine care and compassion and a contagious excitement for our daughter’s progress.
“The action that stood out for us is when she discovered our daughter was a keen cheerleader. She went out of her way, in her personal time, to bring from her own cheer group pom-poms for one of our daughter’s physio sessions and taught her some moves.
She is always coming up with ways to make her session’s fun and engaging. That has had a positive effect on not just our daughter, but us all as a family, when we have needed lifting.
