Student mum is in line-up for top award

Mental health nursing student Amanda Chadwick and the University of Central Lancashire and have been nominated for 2017 Student Nursing Times Awards.

Single mum Amanda has been selected for the Most Inspirational Student Nurse of the Year while UCLan has been named in the Nurse Education Provider of the Year (pre-registration) category.

The 35-year-old (pictured) was nominated after co-founding Wrap Pyjama Fairies, a charity dedicated to helping children feel more comfortable during stays in hospital.

She learnt to sew while pregnant with her youngest daughter, was inspired to create the special pyjamas after Nevaeh Belle was diagnosed with heart failure and rushed into hospital at two-days-old.

She said: “Throughout her time in hospital I realised that she spent most of her time naked and would scream in discomfort when I had to undress her for the staff to give their care.

“Since I couldn’t find anything suitable for her to wear either in the UK or further afield, I decided to create some comfortable specially designed pyjamas for her to wear.

“These special pyjamas meant she could stay dressed, warm, safe and virtually pain free while the medical team looked after her.”

Stunned at her nomination, she added: “I never started any of this to win awards. I saw a need and decided to do something about it. I couldn’t do it all without the charity’s co-founder Chelsea Coulson-Williams, a master’s student at Aberystwyth University and all the fabulous volunteers.”

She is taking her university friends and her dad to the award ceremony at the Park Lane Hilton on April 27

UCLan’s nominated pre-registration nursing courses include adult nursing, mental health nursing, mental health practice, and children’s nursing. The University is also sponsoring the Educator of the Year Award.