"I am the Security and Car Parking Manager and an Accredited Security Management Specialist, for the Trust.

"I work in the Safety Department within Estates and Facilities providing guidance, advice, support and help to all staff and service users throughout the Trust. I also manage the Senior Program Support Officer for CCTV and the Security Admin team who provide all of the Trust ID cards and parking permits for all staff.

"I started my time with the Trust in March 2010 as a Security Officer working for a company contracted to the Trust, working my way up to security officer supervisor within four years and gaining several qualifications along the way. In November 2014 there was an opportunity to join the NHS as a manager so I applied. I was successfully appointed and I have never looked back.

"Working in security has involved me with every department, and I have worked in every environment side by side with other NHS professionals. The variety is like no other and covers almost every aspect of security that you can think of. I have done everything from assist the armed police with measurements, to pulling a patient in from a window ledge on one of the wards after they had smashed the window and climbed onto the ledge and threatened to jump.

"One day you can go from listening to patients with dementia just talk for hours, to stopping Emergency Department staff from being assaulted while they are trying to do their jobs. You can be close by to provide a quick response for staff that are dealing with aggressive patients, to providing escorts for staff to their cars on dark winter evenings.

"I’m very proud and lucky to work with such an amazing team. Everyone is so supportive and encouraging, and we help each other to develop and progress. The team is always there no matter what is going on.

"As much as the NHS has done for me professionally, I am also incredibly grateful to the service as a patient and as a father. I was technically still born. I was resuscitated at birth and I was 6 weeks premature. I had Pyloric Stenosis which was undiscovered for 3 and a half weeks and I was just 3lbs 1oz when I was operated on.

"When my daughter was five, she became very unwell. Fast forward fourteen months later after a very difficult and tricky diagnosis where she was under five specialists and she had been poked and prodded, numerous blood tests, MRI and Meckel’s scans, x-rays, ultrasounds, a camera up and down, twice, bone marrow biopsy, lymph node removed, put to sleep 6 times and anything else you could probably think of, before a PET scan discovered a tumor and I was told that she had a rare form of cancer. The tumor was removed and sent to Boston in America, to be studied by the world’s leading expert in this form of cancer.

"In September 2018, my daughter will be 18 months cancer free. If it wasn’t for the NHS I don’t believe my daughter would be with us today.

"I’m proud to work for the NHS and I respect each and every person who works here, at every level, because together we all provide a fantastic service not only to each other, but to thousands upon thousands of service users too. The passion, empathy and professionalism I have witnessed in my eight and a half years here is second to none."