TEARS & CHEERS
Theresa May honours NHS heroes at The Sun’s inspiring Who Cares Wins health awards… and even performs her Abba dance for young boy
THERESA May last night jigged on stage again as she honoured our unsung NHS heroes at The Sun’s Who Cares Wins health awards.
The PM — who last week danced to Abba’s Dancing Queen at the party conference — also met the smallest boy born in the UK to survive.
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Dr Peter Reynolds, 52, was awarded Best Neonatal specialist for treating 13oz Frankie Thompson.
He was smaller than a can of beans when mum Michelle, 36, from Farnborough, Hants, gave birth at 24 weeks.
The PM said: “Peter and all the other winners represent the very best of our NHS — they have shown care, compassion and professionalism, and I want to say thank you to them.”
Dr Reynolds, of St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey, Surrey, said of Frankie, 13 months: “Seeing him now, so big and full of life, is so rewarding.”
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The Who Cares Wins awards, in their second year, honours doctors, midwives, nurses and other NHS heroes.
Lorraine Kelly hosted the event, in the year the NHS is celebrating its 70th birthday.
Introducing the PM she joked: “To give this award and say a few words is a woman who last week walked out on stage to the Abba classic, Dancing Queen. Personally, I’d have gone for Gimme Gimme Gimme A Man After Midnight.”
Guests included Sir Rod Stewart and wife Penny Lancaster, DJ Chris Evans and broadcaster Richard Bacon.
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Sun readers who nominated the 33 finalists were also at British Medical Association House, in Tavistock Square, central London.
Evans, whose ex-nurse mum Minnie Beardsall, 92, died this year, was close to tears as he presented the Best Nurse award. He said: “I would like to thank the NHS for the last 70 years, for giving my mum a job.”
He added: “I’d like to thank the NHS for keeping my mum alive for far longer than was expected. And well done to The Sun for putting these awards on.”
He presented the gong to Kat Mayer, ward sister at Lincoln County Hospital. She walked ten miles through snow to see patients in February.
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Best Health Charity — presented by Penny Lancaster — was won by b:Friend, which matches “befrienders” with isolated elderly neighbours.
Founder Mike Niles, 32, set it up in Doncaster after befriending Mitzi, 77, and he said: “Despite the age gap, we had so much in common.”
Best Doctor award went to devoted Salford GP Noorwalla Kassam. The doctor, who arrived from India in 1973, has regular late surgeries and checks patients are fine if they miss an appointment.
Musician Professor Green presented the Mental Health Hero accolade to Mary Mitchell. The retired GP receptionist, 71, has opened her home to dozens of mental health patients.
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Award for Groundbreaking Pioneer or Discovery was won by Mark Wilson and Ali Ghorbangholi for the lifesaving Good Sam App.
Dubbed the Uber of CPR, Sam stands for “smartphone activated medics”. People with CPR training are alerted of an emergency nearby.
Unsung Hero was won by terminal cancer patient Mark Hughes 57, from Great Wakering, Essex, who fund-raises for charity Marie Curie.
Best Midwife was won by Nicola Taylor, 46, who consoled a couple after the death of their triplets.
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Health Secretary Matt Hancock presented Young Hero to Callum Beckett, 13, from Walsall. He spent two months in Birmingham Children’s Hospital after a crash which killed his granddad. Now he fund-raises for it.
Ultimate Lifesaver went to the Midlands Air Ambulance team. Richard Bacon, who spent 11 nights in a coma in Lewisham Hospital in July, said: “It is just good to be alive. I wanted to come as well so I could pay tribute.
“Without them my kids would not have a father and my wife would be a widow.”
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Audio of Sun’s Who Cares Wins Health Awards nominee Henry Coles, 6, making 999 call that saved his mum’s life
Health Editor Christina honoured with gong
THE last Who Cares Wins award of the night was named in honour of The Sun’s late inspirational Health Editor Christina Newbury.
Christina launched these awards last year — but died suddenly in March at the age of 31.
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Prime Minister Theresa May praised Christina’s work last night.
She said: “I want to pay tribute to The Sun for this opportunity, and to Christina Newbury — who sadly passed away this year — for her tremendous journalism and for doing so much to bring us these awards.”
Christina’s family watched as the Christina Newbury Memorial Award was presented to Glenfield Hospital and Leicester Royal Infirmary for saving Vanellope Wilkins, of Bulwell, Notts.
Vanellope was the first baby in the UK to survive being born with her heart outside her body. She had a string of ops last November
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The Sun Says
WHAT an honour for The Sun to pay tribute again to the unsung heroes of the NHS.
We are sometimes critical of the way the health service is funded. But the dedication and compassion of the vast majority of staff remain awe-inspiring.
How proud our Health Editor Christina Newbury, who launched the Who Cares Wins awards before her tragic death aged 31, would have been to see them become an annual event.
To the very best of the NHS . . . The Sun salutes you.
The Sun's late Health Editor Christina Earle posthumously awarded the UK's most prestigious gong for health journalism
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