Charity Founder and specialist nurse has reached the final of two prestigious national nursing awards.
Hilary Maxwell, Chair of GO Girls and Gynae-Oncology Nurse Specialist at Dorset County Hospital has been nominated for two national awards. She has reached the finals in the Nursing Times 2023 Awards, Nurse of the Year and the RCN Nursing Awards, Nurse Leader of the Year in a year where there were much higher nominations than ever before.
Hilary said: “I am very honoured to reach the finals: this is testament to the hard work put in by GO Girls. I am supported by an incredible team of Trustees. It is nice to have this work recognised, even by getting to the finals – perhaps my biggest challenge will be deciding what to wear!”
Sharon McCartney, Trustee of GO Girls and former colleague of Hilary’s in Manchester nominated her. “It was simple. I’ve known Hilary for nearly 20 years now. Not only is she an incredible nurse, totally dedicated to her patients and speciality, but she has demonstrated going much further than this, by dedicating hours of her personal time to supporting women through GO Girls and running some very successful educational campaigns: for us at GO Girls she is a true leader”.
Head of Communications, Siobhan Griffiths, who has also known Hilary for 30 years and worked with her added: “Hilary had a forward thinking approach to GO Girls. She found a gap that needed to be met. Her drive, passion and determination drove her to find the energy and strength to set up GO Girls and manage this in her own time, on top of her very busy NHS role. To give up this much personal time is more than admirable. To us at GO Girls she is a winner already”.
Hilary’s own community in Upwey have also been following her progress. Pete Fisher, Landlord of the Old Ship Inn, Upwey who has bought two additional tickets for her said: “We are delighted to be supporting Hilary. She is a bright spark in our community: she makes us very proud”
Hilary founded GO Girls in 2015 and in 2018 the organisation became a registered charity. GO Girls raised £50,000 to support Dorset County Hospital’s Cancer Appeal and it supports nearly 1000 women across the UK, as well as driving educational campaigns to help women recognise symptoms of gynaecological cancers to drive earlier diagnosis and improve survival outcomes.
