Trust celebrates 800 years of long service and special achievements

800 years of long service and special achievements of ambulance colleagues, volunteers and members of the public have been celebrated at the first in a series of three awards ceremonies, with Isle of Sheppey Operations Manager, Alex Brownlow, thanked for his kindness and compassion in a powerful tribute to the former colleague, Ryan O’Bray, who died unexpectedly in July.

Held at The Orangery in Maidstone, Kent on the evening of Thursday, 7 November, the awards ceremony saw more than 150 colleagues, volunteers, and their loved ones from across Kent gather to recognise those who have gone above and beyond in their roles.

The awards honoured long-service and featured new award categories, Demonstrating Kindness, Acting with Courage, and Upholding Integrity, aligning to the Trust’s new values.

In a particularly moving tribute, Alex Brownlow and his Sheppey team were presented with a Demonstrating Kindness Chief Executive’s Commendation award for their exceptional compassion and kindness following the loss of their much-loved colleague, Ryan.

The recognition came with a standing ovation as Ryan’s parents, Lisa and Rob O’Bray, expressed their gratitude to Alex and his team.

‘Kind and selfless’ Associate Ambulance Practitioner, Ryan, aged 28, had worked at Sheppey Ambulance Station in Queenborough for the last seven years.  Since his passing, the team and family has rallied together to keep his memory alive. Most recently, Ryan’s colleagues, family and friends have set up Ryan’s Legacy – a  GoFundMe page to raise funds to purchase defibrillators and fund essential first aid training for the local Sheppey community, which has currently raised more than £5000.

At the ceremony, special guests included Trevor Minter OBE DL, Vice Lord-Lieutenant and The King’s representative for Kent, who presented King’s Medals for Long Service and Good Conduct to 20 frontline colleagues.

Awards for 20 and 30 years’ NHS service were also presented, while SECAmb’s volunteers were thanked for 10 years’ dedication to the service.

Among the long-service award recipients, Thanet paramedic, Gary Evans and Ashford paramedic, Ivan Kaye both celebrated an exceptional 40 years with the service. Teenagers and members of the public, Ella Selfe, Jersie Wiles and Max Markham were also celebrated for their efforts in saving a man who got into difficulty in the sea in Minster in the summer. They also received a standing ovation from attendees for their bravery.

Full details of all long service and commendation award winners can be found below.

Congratulations to all those awarded for their invaluable contributions to SECAmb. The Surrey award ceremony will take place on Thursday, 14 November and the Sussex ceremony on Thursday, 21 November.

Kings Medal for Long Service and Good Conduct

Sally Cooke, Paramedic, Dartford

Jenny Deacon, Associate Ambulance Practitioner/Technician, Paddock Wood

Stephen Dowdall, HART Operations Manager, Ashford

Angus Drew, Associate Ambulance Practitioner/Technician, Paddock Wood

Michelle Dziedzic, Associate Ambulance Practitioner/Technician, Medway

James Fisher, Operations Manager, Dartford

Ellen Grant, Associate Ambulance Practitioner/Technician, Thanet

Jilly Griffiths, Associate Ambulance Practitioner/Technician, Paddock Wood

Derrick Hunnisett, Emergency Care Support Worker, Paddock Wood

Michelle Lancley, Associate Ambulance Practitioner/Technician, Thanet

John Morphey, Paramedic, Medway

Adam Nicholson, Ambulance Technician, Thanet (Now retired)

Lucy Oakley, HART Team Operative, Ashford

Paul Stocker, HART Team Operative, Ashford

Colin Varrall, Associate Ambulance Practitioner/Technician, Thanet

Joanne Henning, Associate Ambulance Practitioner/Technician, Paddock Wood

Suzanne Wakefield, Advanced Paramedic Practitioner, Ashford

20 Years’ NHS Long Service

Alison Carr, 111 Nurse Clinical Advisor, Medway

Tammy Fox, 111 Service Co-ordinator, Medway

30 Years’ NHS Service 

Steven Barrett, Driving Instructor, Sheppey

Lisa Maysey, EOC Clinical Practice Developer, Medway

Jo Thrussell, Clinical Safety Navigator, Medway

Stephen Valente, 111 Nurse Clinical Advisor, Medway

40 years’ NHS Service

Gary Evans, Paramedic, Thanet

Ivan Kaye, Paramedic, Ashford

10 Years’ Voluntary Service

Brian Banks, Chaplain, Paddock Wood

Ellen Couzens, Chaplain, Medway

Tracy Pepler, Community First Responder, Rother

Victor Twine, Chaplain, Dartford

Chief Executive Commendations

Acting with courage 

The first category of award, we honour colleagues who have demonstrated great courage, one of our three Trust values. This award recognises acts of bravery and fairness in service delivery.  It celebrates those who stand up for what is right and lead by example.

For this first award we acknowledged the acts of one of our HART operatives, Emma Bareham who put herself at great risk to ensure she could care for her patient. While responding to a reported stabbing, which was also quickly declared a firearms incident and subsequent murder investigation, HART paramedic Emma inadvertently found herself responding on her own to the very incident she was en route to. Throughout, Emma demonstrated true courage and calmness under extreme circumstances.

Demonstrating Kindness

For this next category of awards, we acknowledge colleagues, volunteers or other partner organisation colleagues who have shown consistent compassion, generosity, respect and care for others in everything that they do.

For this award we acknowledged the outstanding compassion and care delivered to the loved ones of our former colleague, Ryan O’Bray, who sadly died earlier this year. Awarded with the Demonstrating Kindness award was Operations Manager, Alex Brownlow and his Sheppey team.

Upholding Integrity

For this next award category, we celebrated the actions of those who display great integrity through acts of honesty and transparency in delivering fairness and consistency in their approach to their work and others. Assistant Director of HR Business Partnership, Dawn Chilcott was the deserving winner, for her work supporting more than 800 colleagues with the Trust’s relocation from its Ashford and Coxheath to its new hub in Medway.

Voluntary or Community Service

In this next category of awards, we celebrate voluntary or community service which may have benefitted the local community or our colleagues.

Thanked for her tremendous support that was provided to our Sheppey colleagues following Ryan’s death, SECAmb Chaplain, Pam Beckinsale was recognised for always being there for colleagues.

Also in this category, our fantastic team of Emergency Responders (ERs) were thanked for their dedication to the role. Congratulations to our Ashford ERs, David Amos, Christopher Bellis, Alan Cooper, Denver Giles, Gemma Claxton, Danny Horan, Hannah Wickens, Jason Roberts, Ken Hopkins, Kevin Brown, Sacha Alexander and Zella Nerssessian.

Next up in this category, Medway-based Emergency Medical Advisor, Charlotte Styles, was celebrated for her fundraising efforts for the Great Ormand Street Hospital Charity. Since 2021, Charlotte has organised and run charity football matches at Crystal Palace Football Club to raise funds for the hospital. Her efforts to date have seen her and friend Jamie Groves raise more than £150,000.

For the next award in this category, we gave thanks to the support provided by a former special police officer, Kevin Impett, who provided unwavering support of the Medway Joint Response Unit (JRU) during his work with Kent Police. The JRU has responded to more than 20,000 incidents since its launch with Kevin playing a vital role in ensuring its success.

Honouring Public Service 

In often in very distressing and challenging circumstances, members of the public or colleagues from other emergency services act selflessly to help others.

In our public commendation, we acknowledged the quick thinking and actions of youngsters Ella Selfe, Jersie Wiles and Max Markham. The trio were quick to react, rescue and call 999 for a man who got into difficult while swimming in the sea in Minster earlier this year. The three, aged just 12 and 13 at the time, saved the man’s life while others watched on.

Employee of the Year – Highly Commended

Nominated for Colleague of the Year for his commitment and dedication was Medway based Fleet Services Manager, Rob Martin. Rob was recognised for always looking for ways to achieve the desired outcomes, achieve his objectives and targets, and for constantly searching for ways to make improvements in every element of his department.

For the final awards of this evening, we acknowledged two great teams in the Trust.

Firstly, congratulations to our Crtitical Systems Team who have demonstrated exceptional collaboration, dedication, and achievement over the past year, in particular for their work undertaken to support the go-live of our new Medway Make Ready, EOC and 111 centre last year.  Well done to Chris Evans, Harry Kirkby, Stuart Jordan, Danny Speed, Owain Langford, Roberto Balsas, Quita Harkess and Phil Woolgar.

For our second Team of the Year, we acknowledged a team who came together to deliver something that resulted in improved outcomes for patients but provided the blueprint for a model of care that is now being delivered across each of our counties. Congratulations to our team of colleagues from the Ashford clinical coordination hub, David McQuillan, Jamie Webb, Laura Browning, Tom Rowland, Grace Coombs, Lucinda Webb, Alan Hougham, Rebecca Cunningham, Ash Trickey, Harry Stone, Ash Ortega, Robin King, Alex Baxter, Operations Manager, KCHFT, Diwaker Sharma, William Harvey Hospital ED consultant, John Sweeney, Colin Leedham, Steve Bingham, Amanda Smith, Michal Pezda, Darren Wardle, Simon Rosenberg, Jacek Sokulski, James Edwards, Jeff Humm, Rachel Barton, Robin King, Andrew Smith and Nick Wakefield.