A virtual celebration for our Goodall staff

Yesterday (Wednesday 24 February 2021) CNWL hosted the first virtual Goodall Celebration. 

If you missed it, you can watch it back by clicking on this link 

The annual celebration highlights the achievements and contributions of staff in the division, across community, mental health, CAMHS, Eating Disorders, Rehabilitation services.

The event was co-hosted by Graeme Caul, Goodall Division’s Managing Director, Helen Willetts, Goodall Division’s Nursing Director and Director for IPC, and Dr Paul Hopper, Goodall Division’s Medical Director.

The theme of the event was around Resilience and resolve: Adapting and thriving in challenging times.

The event opened with a summary of Goodall’s achievements and performance, a one minute silence for those lost to Covid-19 and a collection of photos and videos of our staff.

Claire Murdoch, CNWL Chief Executive thanked the division for all their efforts.

Claire said: “You have been extraordinary and worthy of the absolutely incredible work that every single colleague in the Goodall division has put in to fight Covid-19, support our patients, save lives, keep ourselves safe, support our partners, and really just tremendous work.”

Over 300 staff tuned in and listened to reflections over the past year which many agreed has been challenging and tough due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Graeme said: “It’s been a difficult time for everyone, but you’ve been amazing. We want to have a look out how we start our journey to recovery and supporting each other, and think about our resilience moving forward.”

Throughout the half day event, two key note speakers addressed our staff.

Paul McGee, aka TheSumoGuy shared his experience and story of being resilience and the importance of looking after your wellbeing.

“Wellbeing is not nice to do, wellbeing is necessary to do. We’ve got to make sure we support ourselves. One thing I want you to think about is, your choices matter, question how you’re helping each other.”

Anthony Bennett, spoke about his personal journey of being given just a 10% chance of survival having contracted three infections, Strep Pneumonia, Influenza and Staphylococcus.

“I thought if I was just to give up and die, I will never get that opportunity to hear another Eminem album. Then I got to start thinking about the future, all the things I’d miss out on if I just gave up All the places in the world I haven’t been to yet, all the people I haven’t met; I love meeting new people, all the food I haven’t tasted, so I told myself just try and give everything you could.”

Anthony was resuscitated 12 times while at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Since undergoing a full recovery, Anthony has become a charity fundraiser by sharing his transformation journey of showing resilience through adversity.

The celebrations closed with an award ceremony to recognise the efforts of all our hard working staff.

We also revealed who won the best poster competition (there was a total of 767 votes!)

The runners up and winners are: 

We also announced the winners of the Shining Star Director Awards: