The Manor House revives the Karen Walker Award; honours nurse Saral Solomon and housekeeping’s Lynn Murray
Peer and family nominations led to 74 votes across 23 colleagues; after counting the votes the highest-nominated team members were determined for the 2025 recipients.
— The Manor House has revived its flagship Karen Walker Award, recognising two outstanding team members for exceptional commitment to residents and colleagues: Nurse Saral Solomon and Housekeeping’s Lynn Murray.
Created in memory of former joint Registered Manager Karen Walker, whose leadership helped the home achieve a prestigious Gold Standards Framework recognition in 2012 and who trained and mentored many long-standing staff, the award reflects her enduring influence on person-centred and end-of-life care.
After a pause, the award returned this year. Seventy-four votes were cast across 23 nominated colleagues. A panel including team members, families and management reviewed the nominations, with the highest-nominated colleagues selected as winners. The shield was presented by Janet Harrison, co-founder of The Manor House with Chris Harrison.
Cath Mellin, Registered Manager and Nominated Individual, said:
“Saral and Lynn embody the standards we strive for every day. The values set by Janet and Chris Harrison still guide us — and the way Saral and Lynn support residents, families and colleagues is the best expression of The Manor House at its finest.”
Nominations praised the whole team with amazing comments such as “strong leader,” “brilliant in emergencies,” “patient with residents,” “Excellent role-model with a wealth of knowledge” with “attention to detail” noted throughout. Other comments mentioned staff being “a joy to work with,” “So humble, so amazing makes the Manor House light up,” and they “always goes that extra mile.”