Help for Heroes' nurse receives national award

An Exeter-based Help for Heroes nurse has paid tribute to her ‘wonderful’ colleagues after receiving a national nursing award.

Janine Whitley, 46 who served in the Navy for 25 years and saw four tours of Afghanistan, has worked as a Veterans Clinical Advisor across Bristol, Somerset, Devon, Dorset, and Cornwall, since 2021.

Originally from Sidcup, in Kent, she joined the Royal Navy straight from school as a communicator, aged 16. As a Wren she served on both HMS Exeter and HMS Liverpool, before obtaining her qualifications as a nurse, as it was always her ambition to join Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service.

She received her Cavell award at an internal Help for Heroes clinical team meeting but was amazed when she realised the award being discussed was being made to her.

She smiled: “It was a real shock; I thought it would be for someone else, because our team is wonderful, so it could have been for anybody. But they had nominated me.

“The citation was for the governance side of her work. I try to make governance something that's relevant to everybody rather than it just being something that’s a chore. I really enjoy the governance side of my role and its essential an organisation gets it right.”

The Cavell Star Awards – named after renowned WWI nurse Edith Cavell – are given to nurses, midwives, nursing associates and healthcare assistants who ‘shine bright and show exceptional care to one of three groups of people: colleagues, patients, and patients’ families’.

Janine, who is now governance lead for the veterans clinical service, added: “It means more to be recognised by your colleagues.

“If you feel what you're doing is making an impact on the people you work with, then that’s an important thing for me. If you can make life easier for them, then the working environment is more effective and they can provide a better service.

“And, as a charity, its essential that we have the strongest of values and integrity and are doing the right thing for the service users, supporters and staff, and governance and assurance underpins it all. It's not just a tick-box exercise. If governance is sound and we're spending money wisely and with integrity, then we're doing right by the people who are putting their hard-earned cash in that box.”

Help for Heroes champions the Armed Forces community and helps them live well after service. The charity helps veteran families to recover and get on with their lives. It has already supported more than 31,000 people and won’t stop until every veteran gets the support they deserve.

The Charity supports veteran families, from any branch of the UK military – regulars or reserves – irrespective of length or place of service, and locally embedded civilians (and their families) who worked under the command of UK Armed Forces.

To get support visit helpforheroes.org.uk.