Allie Hunton – Unsung Hero Awards

Nomination

Award Category:

Volunteer of the year

Individual or Team Nomination?

Individual

Qualifying Qualities

In these challenging times, nominators were asked to show how the nominee had demonstrated the following qualities:

Exceptional work ethic - going above and beyond their job description, especially in the past 12 months.
Outstanding achievement/s in work or outside of the organisation where relevant.
Drive for innovation and proactive leadership in these challenging times.
High level of interpersonal skills, such as kindness, empathy, loyalty and thoughtfulness to staff and patients.
A resilience considering Covid to their role and to the health and wellbeing of their colleagues.

Nominators Answer

Nominee's story :

Allie has an exceptional work ethic and has volunteered most days during the Covid-19 pandemic and put herself forward at the outset to help out with our hospital charity, despite the great uncertainties surrounding the pandemic. At the height of the pandemic Allie has helped to distribute over £70k worth of donations to support our staff & patients – boosting morale & keeping everyone going through one of the toughest times. Allie has allocated 3,800 sets of scrubs, 2400 loungewear sets, 4000 hand creams, 17300 drinks & snacks and 69 tablets to staff using her excellent organisational skills from a career in retail management, everything was accounted for and run efficiently like clockwork. The charity has provided grocery fruit/vegetable packs for staff, Allie helped in delivering over 500 of these in a 2 hour period. Allie has supported hospital patients to contact loved ones - she has acted sensitively, with the greatest compassion through the most difficult situations also managing patient property, cleaning & disinfecting it and following infection control procedures. Allie also provided peer support to her fellow volunteers who were shielding, keeping them stocked up with jigsaws and treats as a genuine act of kindness. Allie also volunteers for a local greyhound trust and has continued to support them too helping raise awareness of their plight during the pandemic and vital funds to keep the organisation going. In February 2021, Allie shared with us that she had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. Any ordinary human would have been floored by this news particularly during the current times but not Allie she is an ordinary person doing an extraordinary role as a volunteer and the person we all aspire to be. Allie turned this news into a positive by pledging to dye her hair blue and shaving it down to support our new charity appeal Make a Memory which will enable a transformation of our care of the elderly ward helping all patients but particularly those with dementia and the greyhound trust. Allie stayed true to her word and raised over £2000 split between the 2 charities, with a smile on her face she is an inspiration to us all. She has been at heart of our charity response to the Covid-19 pandemic and continues to support us even during her chemotherapy coming up with fundraising ideas. We cannot thank Allie enough and would love her to be recognised as our Unsung Hero!