On Tuesday evening I was shooting the St. George’s Healthcare NHS Trust Long Service and Annual Awards dinner. Although I’ve covered this event before, I’m always left surprised and impressed at the amount of award winners there are each year. A number of the awards were reserved to those with long service in an NHS role or to volunteers giving up their spare time, some for as long as 25 consecutive years. It’s always great to see such commitment to the NHS from such dedicated staff and volunteers, and the awards were well and truly deserved. Another cause for celebration that evening was St. George’s recent award of Foundation Trust status along with the reception of Channel 4’s 24 Hours in A&E set at St. George’s.

Nicholas Owen was back to compere the evening, and as you’d expect from such a seasoned news and radio presenter he kept the crowd enthralled. Amongst the tales of his appearances on Strictly Come Dancing and Mastermind, I was surprised to learn the extent of his passion for railways… he actually provides the voiceover announcing stations on the tramlink in Croydon!