Care assistant, Alison Morrison, has been shortlisted for the national Our Health Heroes Awards 2022 ‘Clinical Support Worker of the Year’.
The Call-In Homecare Edinburgh care worker stopped her car to give urgent attention to Christian Mulvey’s elderly father who had experienced a sudden fall on Gamekeepers Road early last year. She was passing during a shift with Call-In Homecare.
Later that day, just a few miles away, close to Western General Hospital, Alison was once again at the scene caring for an elderly woman who had been involved in a collision with her car.
These two events prompted Edinburgh banking manager Christian to nominate Alison for a national Our Health Heroes Awards, and she is now one of three finalists in the Clinical Support Worker of the Year category.
Christian said: “When Alison came across my father he was covered in blood and disorientated. Whilst several passers-by ignored him, Alison immediately stopped her car to clean him up and settle him down, before taking him home where she waited until I arrived.
“When I got there, she persuaded me to take dad to the hospital and it was a good job that she did as it turned out that dad needed an operation to have a plate implanted in his cheek.
“I dread to think what would have happened if she hadn’t stopped.”
In the months since his father’s accident, 64-year-old Christian has fully come to appreciate how remarkable the busy mum is, highlighting care and compassion run through her DNA.
Christian said: “During the pandemic Alison went out of her way to help people.
“She collected toiletries, socks and nightwear for The Royal Edinburgh Hospital, bought Easter eggs for residents in care homes and made gift packages up for Carers hands.
“She volunteers for Meal Train and delivers up to 20 meals a week out of her own pocket to the most vulnerable coming out of hospital.”
Amazingly, Alison has managed to achieve all of this, while dedicating herself to working at Call-In Homecare and juggling extensive caring responsibilities at home.
Christian continued: “This woman works full time as a carer for Call-In Homecare where she goes around the community seeing service users who need care.
“She has looked after her in-laws for the past few years with dementia until they recently passed away. She is now also looking after her mother who is elderly and has been diagnosed with a brain tumour. Her daughter has cerebral palsy and doesn’t walk at all.
“She has just raised enough money through her fund raisers to buy a caravan for a man, so he had a place to call home. Through another fundraiser a business was going to shut, and she has managed to raise enough money for the business to stay open and is now thriving.”
Alison has collected for Mission Christmas organised by a local radio station and collected 46 donated items by the time Christmas came around for children living under the poverty line.
Christian said Alison is “Just an amazing example to us all”.
Voting in the Our Health Heroes Awards 2022, delivered by Skills for Health, is now open.
To cast your vote for Alison, one of three finalists in the Clinical Support Worker of the Year category, visit: https://bit.ly/3FYSK0a
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