Staff recognised for lifelong commitment to the NHS

Long-serving members of staff have been honoured at Guy's and St Thomas' Long Service Awards. They have each worked in the Trust or NHS for a minimum of 25 years.

Among those recognised were several members of Evelina London staff who have dedicated their working lives to caring for women, babies, children, young people and their families:

• Catherine Renwick, consultant nurse 
• Matthew Norridge, head of clinical education and Eranda Rothschild scholarship programme director 
• Anastasia Jeffers, midwife 
• Sara Arenas-Lopez, consultant midwife 
• Helene Thomas, senior nurse 
• Jenny Budd, ECMO nurse lead 
• Julie Williamson, fetal cardiology clinical nurse specialist 
• Sara Taylor, team leader of the health visiting single point of access team 
• Susan Goodwin, specialist nurse in the looked after children service 

Catherine Renwick has been a pioneer in her area of work, becoming the UK's first nurse consultant in paediatric cardiology. She also set up the first nurse-led clinic for children with supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) at Royal Brompton Hospital. 

SVT is a condition where the heart suddenly beats much faster than normal. Catherine specialises in caring for children with arrhythmias (heart rhythm problems) and is currently researching exercise in children with inherited arrhythmias. 

She said: "When I first started as a clinical nurse specialist, I was looking after children I'd cared for on our intensive care unit, so I'd known them and their parents from when they were babies and watched them grow.

The benefit of being able to see children develop, and having that experience, is that I can offer a lot of reassurance to parents in certain situations. 

"When they are admitted in a crisis because their baby is very unwell, with SVT for example, all they can see is this terribly sick baby at this time. They can't see 6 months and a year down the line to know that things are going to be okay. But I can see it because I've seen these children as they're growing up, and I know what the outcomes are and how things are usually very positive."

Matthew Norridge started his career as a children's nurse, working in the paediatric intensive care unit. During his 17 years working on the unit, he took up positions as a coordinator for the South Thames Retrieval Service, a charge nurse and a lecturer practitioner. In 2018 his passion for education led him to become lead nurse for education and he is now Evelina London's head of clinical education and one of its heads of nursing. 

Matthew said:

The NHS feels very much part of who I am. Having worked here for so long I understand how the NHS functions and how to navigate it to help get the best care for our patients. 

"One of the things I enjoy most is the people I work with. I love how we come up with creative education solutions to help clinicians learn and improve the care they give."