Young Person of the Year, Dora Abbi, sponsor The Abbey School
A teenager who has experienced loved ones facing life-changing accidents and chronic diagnosis has been driven to increase the youth voice in healthcare.
Dora Abbi, aged 17, thought it important to recognise that families and patients had a say in health policy, empathising with how families feel with loved ones in hospital, said her nominator for Young Person of the Year, sponsored by The Abbey School.
Dora joined the Royal Berkshire Hospital Youth forum, where she talked at regional focus groups about primary care access and organised a gift drive which collected 100 gifts for child patients.
“Most significantly, she became part of the Call4Concern advisory board, a service which provides around-the-clock access to second clinical opinions if family/patients are concerned about their care,” said the nominator.
She helped with the design of the new poster and leaflets for C4C, designed to increase patient confidence in the service, and helped update the carer’s booklet, checking and adding links to key websites, emails and contacts to provide a long term resource for young adult carers.
Dora also got involved with the 15-step challenge to provide a youth perspective of the paediatric’s ward, said her nominator, and recently started a Get Well Soon card drive at her school and is looking to organise a pen-pal programme in the future.
She volunteers weekly at a care home, organising activities to tackle loneliness and promotes her school’s food bank to support a local primary school.
“In one year, she helped a hundred plus people in our local community who benefited from gifts, the food bank, games nights and her advocacy, whilst inspiring people to come together.”
The Young Person of the Year award is sponsored by The Abbey School.
Dora has also been nominated for The Inspiration Award sponsored by McDonald’s.
