We are pleased to announce the winners and highly commended applicants for the 2009 Stroke Champion Awards.

The Stroke Champion Awards are a way to recognise people who demonstrate tireless dedication to their work in the field of stroke. We want them to know that although they don’t get formal recognition; their contribution to the lives of stroke patients, survivors and carers is vital and does not go unnoticed.

Successful applicants were chosen for one of the following two categories:

• Stroke Care Champion Award (in conjunction with the Stroke Society of Australasia) - Open to health professionals, social care professionals and general professionals who have demonstrated a long term commitment (five or more years) in the field of stroke. This award celebrates those who have gone above and beyond their professional duties to improve stroke care and outcomes for stroke patients.
       
• Improving Life After Stroke Award - Open to stroke survivors, carers, members of the general public and people who work in a voluntary capacity. This award celebrate those who have shown a long term (five or more years) commitment to supporting stroke survivors or improving care for stroke survivors and raising awareness of stroke survivors’ needs in a voluntary capacity.
  

 The winners of the Stroke Care Champion Awards are:

Jenny Burrows

During eights years as Clinical Nurse Consultant – Stroke Jenny Burrows’ dedication has brought significant results. She helped to implement a system to fast track stroke patients, ensuring they are transported to hospital for urgent treatment in order to improve the chances of a better recovery from stroke.

Among her other contributions, Jenny has written a Stroke Care Guide for Gosford Hospital staff, participates in research into the significant life changes following stroke and the value of mentoring survivors and their families to help them cope.

Merv McAllister

With a nursing career that spans over 30 years, Merv is in his fifth year as the Clinical Nurse Consultant for The Townsville Hospital Acute Stroke Unit. His dedication to ensuring stroke patients and their families receive the best possible care goes above and beyond the call of duty, according to co workers who made the nomination.

“Merv helps stroke patients, their families and his co workers navigate the journey of recovery from stroke, beginning with admission into emergency and continuing beyond discharge,” said social worker Janet Macarthur who also works in The Townsville Hospital’s Acute Stroke Unit.

The Stroke Care Champion Award recognises Merv’s dedication to educating stroke, nursing and medical teams as well as the patients and their families, and creating strong links between regional and rural stroke services.

Merv advocates for ongoing support for stroke patients and their families, and participates in goal setting and discharge planning. He also ensures stroke affected families from culturally and linguistically diverse programs have information they can understand to feel informed and empowered.

Highly commended:

• Karl Schurr
• Andrea Moore
  
• Isabel Harvey

The winner of the Improving Life After Stroke Award is:

Brenda Booth

As a stroke survivor Brenda understands life after a stroke better than most and has volunteered to support other stroke survivors and their carers for six years.

She is case manager for the Department of Disability and Home Care, co president of the Working Age Group Strokes and the Central Coast Acute Stroke Services.

Brenda gives freely of her own time to ensure the needs of stroke survivors are considered in the development of stroke resources and guidelines. She regularly presents to health professionals, proving the patient perspective, highlighting key health issues post stroke and the importance of support.

Highly commended:

• Jeff Pittman

Letter from winners Brenda Booth and Jenny Burrows

To the National Stroke Foundation and the Stroke Society of Australasia

We would like to take this opportunity to express our heart felt thanks for the awards that we received. It was truly a privilege for us and we both feel very humble. There are so many that are worthy of these awards and we certainly wouldn’t have envied the task of choosing. One of the things that we would like to highlight is that stroke services are definitely not the work of isolated people, it is the work of teams. The teams include ambulance, stroke teams, rehabilitation, GPs, community support, professional bodies such as GMCT, the National Stroke Foundation and the State Stroke Recovery Associations and consumers working together that has progressed stroke care to where it is today. In stroke we are truly blessed in that all of these stakeholders work tirelessly to improve care provision. Those who work in the areas of stroke are passionate about what they do and we have found that they are always willing to share new ideas or initiatives. We would like to say congratulations to everyone for the advancements that have been achieved through hard work and dedication and we look forward to seeing what will be accomplished in the future.  

Yours truly
Jenny Burrows and Brenda Booth