Congratulations to Rachel Lees, 'Volunteer of the Year' finalist
Volunteer of the Year Finalist
Headway Tyneside is thrilled to share that Rachel Lees has been announced as one of three finalists at Headway’s National Annual Awards. She has been invited to a special ceremony in London this December. This award celebrates the extraordinary commitment that Rachel has shown to Headway Tyneside in her volunteering role for our charity. It also allows us to say a great big THANK YOU for her long-standing support.
Supporting Headway Tyneside
Rachel works as lead occupational therapist at Neural Pathways, supporting her clients to rebuild their lives following brain injury. She is also a wonderful Mum to her two children. On top of this, Rachel has dedicated 13 years of service to Headway Tyneside, not only as a trustee, clinical advisory team member, and safeguarding lead, but also a regular group leader, volunteering to deliver our evening social group sessions for members.
Rachel has been a member of Headway Tyneside’s committee since 2012 and launched our flagship Tuesday evening social group at Walkergate Park, which she is still involved with to this day.
Rachel always has a smile on her face and bucketloads of energy which she brings into everything she does for Headway Tyneside.
In her trustee role, Rachel brings to committee meetings her in-depth knowledge of our members, and their responses to the activities and initiatives that Headway Tyneside offers. This knowledge is invaluable and helps inform the discussions and decisions that the committee makes, both for the here and now and for the future direction of Headway Tyneside. When asked about Rachel’s role at Headway Tyneside, Matthew Nakonesky, Clinical Advisory Lead at Headway Tyneside said: “As an experienced occupational therapist working in the field of acquired brain injury, Rachel is a huge support to me in terms of guiding our clinical practices and policies. The fact that she knows our members so well is just a huge benefit for the whole committee and really helps guide the decisions we make. The amount of work Rachel does at a committee level, alongside her longstanding support at our weekly social evenings and the amazing support she provides our occupational therapist is nothing short of incredible! I am incredibly grateful that she continues to volunteer her time for the committee.”
Rachel has volunteered with Headway Tyneside for 13 years
Tuesday’s Social Group
Rachel was instrumental in setting up our weekly Tuesday evening social group 13 years ago, a group that Headway Tyneside runs in collaboration with an NHS Neurorehabilitation centre; this involved really dedicated partnership working and development of strong relationships with the NHS team. After a pause during the COVID pandemic, this group has been back up and running for three years and goes from strength to strength with regularly 30 people in attendance each week. It offers our members a chance to come together and spend time socially together, as well as providing an introduction to Headway for current inpatients at the rehabilitation centre – with Rachel and the other staff in attendance able to signpost people to appropriate services as they approach their discharge from hospital.
Rachel continues to staff our social group as a volunteer at twice a month, and this goes far beyond being present on the evening, she also works collaboratively with our members to prepare special themed evenings under her own initiative, be that pancake making, bingo nights, or most recently working with two of our headway members to prepare a ‘1% Club’ game show night. She does all of this on top of all of her other commitments and day job!
Everyone at Headway Tyneside is so thankful to Rachel for all she does to support our charity and our members – you’re already a winner in our eyes and we’re delighted you are being recognised at this national award ceremony!