Congratulations to Judy Lavery! Judy was a finalist in the volunteer of the year in the NSW Health Awards ceremony on Monday night. Here are the notes from her NSW Health Awards website:
Judy brings an innovative and progressive approach to constantly improving the volunteer program and ultimately the care provided for patients at Bear Cottage, the only children’s hospice in NSW.
When Judy’s first grandchild died of cancer at 15 months of age, she retrained to work in complex care for children and adults. On retiring in 2013, Judy wanted to be able to use her skills and passion to help other children and families dealing with a palliative illness and started volunteering at Bear Cottage.
Judy constantly uses creativity and imagination to challenge the approach to volunteering and managing volunteers. Judy works proactively to help train new volunteers as a key advisor and has personally led the new ‘buddy’ system where experienced volunteers are matched with new volunteers to help them become proficient and capable as soon as possible, enabling them to add their own contribution to Bear Cottage.
Judy has led workplace health and safety training for volunteers, improving the quality of the training offered. Judy is a strong ambassador for Bear Cottage and works tirelessly giving talks at fetes and retirement homes and has been directly responsible for many successful fundraising events. Her passion and endless energy makes her an inspiration to everyone at Bear Cottage.
