A nurse who founded a service that provides end of life care to people in their own homes for free has been awarded an MBE.
Jenny Nolan was founder and lately manager of Lawrence Home Nursing Team and has been recognised for services to end of life care.
Mrs Nolan, from Chipping Norton, said: “I was very humbled when I received an email, late in November, to say that I had been nominated for an award in the New Years honours list.
“To be nominated by those that I have worked alongside for so many years and that nomination to have been accepted feels slightly unreal and a huge honour.
“I have been supported by so many people over the years and I am so grateful to have worked within such a fantastic community.
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“Although I have now retired as the Registered Nurse Manager and in October had an amazing retirement party in the Town Hall, Chipping Norton, I intend to continue to support the Lawrence Home Nursing Team and would like to support conversations around end of life care, enabling people to discuss what their wishes would be.”
She added: “Dr Kathryn Mannix talks passionately on end of life care in ‘In my humble opinion, dying is not as bad as you think’ – a talk that is available on You Tube and I would recommend it.”
Jenny was born at Chipping Norton War Memorial Hospital and educated in the town.
Following nurse training at The Horton General Hospital in Banbury, Jenny returned to Chipping Norton to nurse at the War Memorial Hospital on January 1, 1980.
The Lawrence Home Nursing Team was set up in May 1999 by District Nurse Jane Philips MBE, Jenny’s great friend who died in 2011, Dr Martin Lawrence, who was terminally ill himself and Jenny.
It provides people with end of life care in their own home.
The service is free of charge.
At first Jenny was on call for 24 hours every weekday as well as looking after three children and continuing to work at the War Memorial Hospital.
The nursing care provision has now expanded to surgeries in North and West Oxfordshire including Deddington, Bloxham, Hook Norton, the Wychwoods, Charlbury as well as Chipping Norton, however Jenny and her team of nurses never lost their focus on patients and their families despite very challenging situations such as the recent pandemic.
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Her team said: “This remarkable, inspiring and self-effacing woman led the team in providing high quality nursing care for more than a thousand patients who wanted to die at home in North and West Oxfordshire.”
After 23 years of leading the team, Jenny retired in September 2022.
Richard Greaves, chair of the Lawrence Home Nursing Team, said: “This is a richly deserved award, a national recognition of a local hero, someone who has given years of dedicated service to our local community, and an enormous amount of care and support to local patients and their families.
“We would like to extend our warmest congratulations to Jenny on this outstanding achievement and wish her a very happy and well-deserved retirement with her husband Tim, family and camper van.”
This story was written by Miranda Norris, she joined the team in 2021 and covers news across Oxfordshire as well as news from Witney.
Get in touch with her by emailing: Miranda.Norris@newsquest.co.uk. Or find her on Twitter: @Mirandajnorris
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