Duchess of Cornwall honours Bury Nurse

Date published: 04 July 2010

A Bury Nurse has been presented with a prestigious award by the Duchess of Cornwall.

Alison O’Neal, Lead Nurse at Bealey Community Hospital in Radcliffe, part of Community Services Bury, was presented with the Winston Churchill award at a ceremony at the Guildhall in London during May.

Every year the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust awards Travelling Fellowship grants to enable people from a variety of backgrounds to carry out projects overseas.

Alison was granted the Travelling Fellowship back in 2008, the award and grant enabled her take a trip overseas on a sharing and learning exercise for the benefit of local patients. The presentation by the Duchess of Cornwall marked the culmination of Alison’s Fellowship.

Alison’s project focussed on palliative care for non-malignant diseases, and took her to Vancouver Island in Canada. Palliative care is the treatment of symptoms where cure is no longer considered an option. Some people may live for many years with an incurable disease, and lead a life of good quality with effective palliative care.

The aim of Alison’s trip was to find out more about how colleagues overseas approach and deliver palliative care to patients and support them to maintain a good quality of life.

During the month long trip, Alison visited a variety of health care settings, including hospitals and hospices, meeting healthcare professionals and sharing and learning good practice in this field.

Alison, who has practiced medical nursing for over 24 years said: “My visit to Vancouver back during 2008 was a life changing experience and I felt privileged to have been given the opportunity. The trip enabled me to strengthen links, share good practice and different ways of working, which has supported the planning of services locally. I gained a vast amount of experience from the trip which will benefit not only me, but colleagues and patients alike. It was an honour to be presented by The Duchess of Cornwall, to commemorate my Fellowship.”