We are thrilled and delighted for our Right By You Wessex team and Macmillan Lead for Nurses & AHPs, Jane Winter; for winning two incredible awards on Thursday night, recognising the hard work and dedication to cancer services in Wessex.

The 2023 Macmillan Professionals Excellence Awards took place on Thursday 9 November. They are prestigious and independent awards and an opportunity to recognise the outstanding contribution Macmillan professionals make to cancer services across the UK.

Right By You Wessex, won the Integration Excellence Award and our inspiring Lead Nurse, Jane Winter won the Whatever it Takes award.

There were many impressive nominees in both categories and so it is our pleasure that the Judges saw the value and worthiness of Right By You and Jane, to be the amongst the winners of 2023.

About the Awards:

Whatever it Takes Award – recognises those extraordinary efforts, where individuals and teams have had to adapt, innovate, collaborate, support wellbeing initiatives, show great resilience despite distressing situations and lead with compassion.

As a visible figurehead at a national, system and organisational level, Jane is an inspirational and nurturing leader who strives to make sure every member of the cancer workforce feels seen, heard and supported.

Jane was the first full time lead for nursing and AHPs in any Cancer Alliance in England, she is a trail blazer, pioneering the role and making the benefits and impact of the post visible.

She is a Nightingale Scholar and the foundation of her scholarship is to develop cancer nursing leadership at a regional and national level where it does not currently exist.

Locally, Jane has led on the development for the vision of Cancer Nursing across Wessex through her strategic leadership setting short, medium, long term goals culminating in a Wessex strategy document.

Jane is a highly respected and an authentic leader and role model. Projects led and supported by Jane at the Alliance are many, her leadership approach consistently offers compassion and respect for both people using services and those delivery services.

Jane’s nomination highlighted the huge impact she has had across all Wessex Cancer Alliance work programmes, various projects she has led and opportunities she has created to work differently, develop individuals and grow our future leaders.

“We must never lose sight of delivering excellence for the people on the receiving end of care,’ says Jane. ‘Individual experience is unique, and we need to be responsive to those needs and remember that in the current and future delivery of services, the need for individuals and their families to feel cared for remains at the heart of what we do.”

The Integration Excellence Award – recognises individuals and teams who have improved the coordination of services and specialities and enabled integration across settings such acute, primary, social and voluntary or through digital services, to provide a seamless experience for people living with cancer.

Right by You Wessex is an integrated service for anyone with cancer and their families, providing care and support when and where they need it.

Based in two locations, Southampton and Portland, Right by You works with people and families so that support provided is bespoke and meets their individual needs and priorities.  The team is made up of experienced Cancer Nurse Specialists and support workers working in a boundary-spanning way to enable a joined-up approach with other health and social care professionals involved in care.

The majority of referrals to Right by You are for additional support to address complex psychosocial needs (with the team utilising ACT and CALM approaches to their care) and to help people transition through difficult stages in their cancer pathway so they feel equipped and supported.

The service has been heavy influenced by people with lived experience of cancer, shaping the project  and service throughout.  The ambition is for Right by You to be ‘right by everyone’ and for the service to work and meet the needs of all in our communities, including the most vulnerable and those who may find traditional support difficult to access.

Within the Right by You service, the teams have worked proactively to build a support offer for people within the two local communities who experience cancer whilst homeless, on the move or vulnerably housed, and for those who have cancer whilst in prison.   The team have build strong relationships with primary and community care.

Included in this work has been a mentorship opportunity and community of practice; allowing practice nurses to build knowledge and confidence to deliver timely and effective cancer care reviews.

Over 400 people have benefited from Right by You during this first phase – experience and satisfaction has been overwhelmingly positive.  Our thanks and congratulations go to the amazing team delivering this service, our colleagues working alongside us who are helping us learn and work together and differently in a new environment, and the hugely supportive experts by experience that have given us their time, shared their knowledge and insight to help build this service based around what people want and need.

• Expert by Experience video: Why is Right By You Important?
• Stakeholder video: What are the barriers to delivering personalised care?
• Right By You – what are the benefits?

We send our congratulations to both winners, for such worthy recognition.

Find out more about the Macmillan Professionals Excellence Awards here.

Jane Winter – Lead Macmillan Cancer Nurse, Wessex Cancer Alliance.

The Right By You Wessex Team.