Lung Cancer Support Group Awareness 2

13 February 2018

Sally Convery, Specialist Nurse with the Northern Health and Social Care Trust recently won the Royal College of Nursing Cancer Nurse of the year award.

These awards provide the opportunity to highlight excellence within nursing in Northern Ireland and the contribution that nurses make to the health and wellbeing of the people of Northern Ireland.

Sally was instrumental in establishing the Macmillan Lung Cancer Support Group is the only one still operating in Northern Ireland.

Sally comments, “It was an honour to collect the award. There are so many great nurses in Northern Ireland and to get the recognition was amazing for me and the Lung Cancer Support Group.”

Sally joined the Northern Trust as a Macmillan Lung Cancer Nurse Specialist in 2012.

Sally’s strong leadership skills enabled her to work in partnership with the physiotherapist in the Macmillan unit and other Macmillan colleagues to develop a self-management programme for patients with lung cancer. This is aimed at helping patients self-manage throughout treatment, to anticipate issues that they may encounter, and make them aware of the support services they may need to help them overcome the challenges of living with a diagnosis of lung cancer.

Sally also identified the need to refine the system to ensure that it more effectively met the needs of patients and their families at this difficult time, as well as improving communication between health professionals in order to enhance the service to patients.

Working in partnership with other colleagues, Sally developed a screening tool to provide a basis for a holistic needs assessment which enables all relevant information about the patient and their condition to be shared appropriately within the health care team, particularly with GPs and district nursing services.

Sally is an amazing ambassador for the Northern Trust as she is extremely passionate about her patients, their care and support.

Support and information on Lung Cancer is available online at macmillan. org.uk/cancerinformation.

13th February 2018