We are delighted to announce the winners of the UHL Recognition Awards 2026, celebrating the outstanding teams and individuals who go above and beyond to make a difference to our patients, colleagues, and communities.
This year, we received more than 900 nominations – an incredible response that reflects the outstanding work taking place across our hospitals every day. From these nominations, our internal judges assessed and scored the anonymised entries to create our shortlist, deciding on 19 teams and 43 individuals. A panel of internal and external judges selected the winners in each category, recognising the excellent work, commitment, and dedication across UHL.
The winners and finalists of this year’s awards are…
Education and Professional Development Award
- WINNER: Dr Trimanjot Singh Anand, Foundation Year Two Resident Doctor
- Clinical Skills Supervisors Critical Care
- Security Service
- Dr Sameer Bahal, Consultant Immunologist and Allergist
- Dr Olivia Edwards, Foundation Year One Doctor
- Dr James Offer – Consultant
Excellence in Research
- WINNER: Dr Daniel Pan, Specialist Registrar in Infectious Diseases
- Maternity Research team
- Elinor Howcroft and the Continence team
- Agile Research Delivery team
Green Impact Award
- WINNER: Caroline Timms, Therapy Specialty Lead
- Mohammad Farooq, Ruth Ward, Joyel Varghese and Tahir Mahboob – Head of Sustainability, Travelwise Manager, Energy Manager and Waste Manager
- Ruth Ward, Travelwise Manager
- Harish Chudasama, Project Equipment Coordinator, and Bethany Barley, Project Equipment Manager, Our Future Hospitals
Compassionate and Inclusive Leader Award
- WINNER: Heather Nurton, Ward Leader
- Annabel Coulson, Programme Lead for the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR) FDSc Nursing Associate Programme
- Rebecca Stringer, Trainee Advanced Clinical Practitioner in Midwifery / Lead Midwife for the Maternal Medicine Network
- Marcus Cox, Service Manager, Pharmacy
- Dr Olubukola Ayodele, Medical Oncology Consultant
- Vongai Gondoza, Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist
Audit and Quality Improvement Award (finalists are the quarterly Audit and QI Programme winners)
- WINNER: Hanny Mohamed, Deputy Sister
- Sonia Couto, Ward Sister
- Vishak Venprakash, Ward Leader
- Mr Gaurav Jha, Specialty Trainee
Digital Champion Award
- WINNER: Lauren Hurst, AHP Digital Lead
- Dr Louie Savva, Chaplain
- Nicholas Searle, Paediatric Transport Nurse
- Ms Sophie Wrighton-Turner, Breast Surgery Registrar
Outstanding Contribution Award (Individual) – Clinical
- WINNER: Kishan Karia, Principal Pharmacist for Care Homes
- Michelle Pearson, Children’s Therapy Support Worker
- Oluwayemisi Oni-Martins, Senior Healthcare Support Worker
Outstanding Contribution Award (Team) – Clinical
- WINNER: Medical and Frailty Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) Nursing team
- LLR Care Homes Pharmacy team
- Loughborough Day Surgery Unit team
- Enhanced Patient Observation team
- Clinical Decisions Unit (CDU) Therapy team
Outstanding Contribution Award (Individual) – Non-Clinical
- WINNER: Andrew Chamberlin, Security Officer
- John Aisthorpe, Data Administrator
- Fiona Street, OD and Culture Specialist
- Nazrin Issa, OD and Culture Specialist
Outstanding Contribution Award (Team) – Non-Clinical
- WINNER: Recruitment Services Automation team
- Ward 30 Maternity Shared Decision Making Council
- Security Service
- Learning and Development team
Young Adult Learner of the Year
- WINNER: Kieran Vann, Trainee Cardiac Physiologist
- Abigail Salmen, Apprentice Radiotherapy Dosimetrist
- Mohammed Ahmed (Mahid), Administrator
Valuing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award
- WINNER: Security Service
- Dalvir Kandola and Flo Cox, Consultant Midwives
- Tuberculosis Research team
- Dani Wood, Trainee Advanced Nurse Practitioner
- Dr Olubukola Ayodele, Consultant Medical Oncologist
Volunteer of the Year
- WINNER: Bhavna Kotecha
- Roger Latham
- Richard Porter and John Carter
- Faye Pilkington
Patient Choice (nominated by patients and families)
- WINNER: Julie Skeemer, Advanced Clinical Nurse Practitioner
- Dr Kah Wee Teo, Consultant in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine
- Jayne Parker, Deputy Sister / Charge Nurse
- Ward 31, Glenfield Hospital
Positive Impact Award – General Practitioner:
- WINNER: Professor Vinay Gupta
- Dr Grant Ingrams
- Dr Kirk Moore
Congratulations to all our winners and finalists, and thank you to our judging panel.
The UHL Recognition Awards 2026 were made possible thanks to the generous support of sponsors, including: NTT Data, Cepheid, Softcat, Charles Henry & Sons, Steris, Cubiquity, and Ambu.