Perioperative practitioners are now being invited to submit their applications for this year’s Hilda Winifred Mears Award to be in with a chance of winning £1,000 towards a trip overseas as a medical volunteer. Hilda Winifred Mears was a former member of AfPP, who held many perioperative posts both within the UK and abroad. Hilda died in 2008 and has left a legacy to the Association which is used to fund the Hilda Winifred Mears Award.
Organised by the Association for Perioperative Practice, (AfPP), the Hilda Winifred Mears Award enables members to share their knowledge and skills with volunteer organisations working directly with patients overseas in areas generally denied access to free, quality healthcare. Awarded annually, two perioperative practitioners each receive £1,000 to assist them in undertaking a volunteer role. In addition, organisations offering these placements will each receive AfPP membership for one year, together with £100 worth of AfPP publications of their choice.
One of this year’s winners, Alison Herbert is a bank nurse, who works for Ramsey Hospitals in the West Midlands. The Hilda Winifred Mears Award part-funded her two months placement with Mercy Ships, an organisation which provides free surgery and medical care in areas of Africa where access to healthcare is scarce.
Alison said: “It was an inspirational experience to be able to play a small part in helping to transform the lives of some of the world’s poorest people. That is what Mercy Ships does, every day. Through the Hilda Winifred Mears Award, I was able to use my perioperative nursing skills to help people who have lived with the misery of tumours, cleft palates, cataracts and countless other treatable conditions.”
For more information on the Hilda Winifred Mears Award, visit www.afpp.org.uk/careers/awards where an application is available to download. The closing date for applications is 14 January 2011.
