A huge congratulations to Mary Patabadiga, Trainee Chef and winner of our Hero of the Month Award! Mary’s nomination read:
“Conquest’s catering team recently experienced a shortage in staff due to several colleagues being unwell at the same time. Without Mary, our only remaining chef would not been able to feed our patients and staff. Mary did such a good job, really stepping up to organise everything, working long days and coming in on her days off so that no customers even knew there was a problem. Mary organised the whole team ensuring everything that needed to be done was done. Mary made sure that meals for those with special diets were made and that all meals were cooked and served to a high standard.
“Mary has only recently qualified as a chef, but she is a strong, well-liked member of the catering team who gives 110% all of the time. I really believe Mary shows the qualities of all our values – Working Together, Improvement and Development, Respect and Compassion, and Engagement and Involvement. Mary goes beyond what is expected, putting her own needs second to the requirements of patients and staff and still managing to have a smile on her face. This is no easy task and she even managed to have everyone in the team willing and happy to help her where needed without a single complaint!
“Mary is certainly my hero and I would like to say a huge thank you to her.”
Mary was also recently a finalist at our Trust Awards in the category of Apprentice of the Year. Her nomination there read:
“Mary would always go above and beyond and help out wherever needed. She was keen to move her career forwards and was interested in becoming a chef. We were able to arrange an apprenticeship for her as a trainee chef. Mary excelled as a trainee chef and was soon able to work as the late chef on her own. Her training programme was seriously delayed due to COVID-19, which meant she did not have a tutor to link in with for quite some time. Mary continued to learn new dishes and ways to work and completed the required written work. She has now finally been awarded her NVQ Chefs certificate and has become the go-to person when it comes to making the nut allergen cookies for Kipling outpatient testing.”
Well done Mary!