This week we've been proud to be joining the celebrations for International Women's Day.

On Monday we held our first Empower conference at the Learning Centre at HRI where our CEO Owen Williams delivered the opening and welcome. 

Louise Riby's sister, Helen Murphy who is a Strategic Consultant for the engineering industry spoke about self-confidence and how to avoid allowing doubt to prevent you from achieving your goals. 

She discussed the importance of not judging people based on your first impressions of them, asking the attendees to share something about themselves which may be surprising to learn. 

Sunday was the actual IWD day and our former theatres' nurse of many years Lorraine Sykes was hailed a hero by her daughter Lucie, who put together the collage of her Mum (including a black and white starting out pic) see attached.

Lucie, said: "Although she retired nearly two years ago now, she was such a big part of theatres she’s well known amongst staff and surgeons there. She deserves the recognition."

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead, Nikki Hosty, said: “It was my pleasure to organise and be part of CHFT's first International Women's Day event. It was great to see so many people there from different departments and making new connections.

"The event was aimed to celebrate different people and be amazed at what some people can achieve when they have the vision and the support to do so. It was also exciting to hear Cornelle Parker, Deputy Medical Director launching CHFT's Inclusive Personal Development Programme 'Empower'. More news to follow in the next couple of weeks!"

Extra reporting by Gem Kirwan.