Chemotherapy nurse put forward for Community Pride award (From York Press)

Chemotherapy nurse put forward for Community Pride award

7:54am Wednesday 20th March 2013 in News By Haydn Lewis, haydn.lewis@thepress.co.uk

AN award-winning chemotherapy nurse has been nominated for a Community Pride award.

York Hospital nurse Ellie Hodge, 30, won this year’s national Patient’s Choice award earlier this month for her work with cancer patients.

Now she has been nominated in the Health Service Hero category in the York Community Pride Awards 2013, which recognise the efforts of extraordinary individuals and community projects.

As The Press reported, Mrs Hodge was one of four finalists in the running for this year’s Claire Rayner Patient’s Choice Award after being nominated by two York patients; Kathryn Cook, of Haxby, and Rebecca Hastie, of Rawcliffe, who have both been given the all-clear from cancer.

Nominating Mrs Hodge for the Community Pride award, Mrs Cook, who was treated for an unusual form of the disease, said she would be a very deserving winner.

She said: “Ellie has been amazing. When she won the Patient’s Choice award she just couldn’t believe it. I think she is still in shock.

“She would be a very deserving nomination for a Community Pride award. She was the first healthcare professional who treated me like a real human being rather than an interesting statistic. She would never say she is deserving of an award, or that she even does anything to warrant it, but the fact is she made an unbearable time in my life bearable.”

Mrs Hodge, who lives in Acomb with her primary school teacher husband, Tim, has also co-written and helped to produce an award-winning ten-minute DVD that is given to patients before they start their treatment.

All nominees for the Community Pride Awards must live in, or contribute to life in, the City of York Council area. The finalists will be invited to a prestigious awards ceremony in October.

You are free to nominate people for any category, but the judges may move nominations to different categories if it is thought they better reflect the work they have done.

To make a nomination, complete the online form before Friday, July 19.