The Nursing Memorial Appeal and University of Greenwich celebrated their partnership at an event on Wednesday October 2nd attended by Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Edinburgh GCVO, at the prestigious University Women’s Club in Mayfair.
The NMA, which commemorates the Voluntary Aid Detachment and professional nurses who gave their lives in service during the First and Second World Wars, joined with the University to launch our £1,000 Bursary Buddy Award Scheme.
Three of the five first recipients attended the event, organised by the NMA, to hear about ‘Nursing on the Front Line – a Living Legacy’.
Introducing the event for the University of Greenwich, Dr Beverly Joshua, Head of the School of Health Sciences, said: “This fantastic collaboration fills us with immense pride and purpose. The importance of nursing in our society cannot be overstated. Nurses provide compassionate care, expertise, and unwavering support to patients in their most vulnerable moments.
“They play a critical role in promoting public health, preventing illness, and improving patient outcomes. In times of crisis, as we’ve seen during recent global events, nurses stand at the forefront, risking their own wellbeing to safeguard ours.
“This Bursary Buddy Scheme not only honours the legacy of past nurses but also invests in the future of today’s nurses.”
The event included a presentation on ‘Yesterday’s Front Line’ from John Drewry, Patron of the Nursing Memorial Appeal, and actress Eunice Drewry, featuring VAD nurses’ accounts from the First World War, through their journals, diaries and letters home. Brigadier (Retd) Alison McCourt CBE ARRC spoke about ‘Today’s Front Line’ through her experiences of setting up Ebola treatment centres in Sierra Leone and her work in the UK during the covid pandemic. The presentation finished with ‘Tomorrow’s Front Line’, the future of conflict, humanitarian & crisis nursing, from Sonja Curtis, Trustee and Secretary of the NMA, who established the charity twelve years ago.
John Drewry, Eunice Drewry, Sonja Curtis, Dr Amit Aggarwal, Her Royal Highness
John & Eunice Drewry presenting the story of the Voluntary Aid Detachment
Matt Burrow and Sonja Curtis
Robert Rigby, Sonja Curtis, Matt Burrow
Eunice Drewry, John Drewry, Dr Amit Aggarwal, Squadron Leader James Salt, Brigadier (Retd) Alison McCourt CBE ARRC
Professor Derek Moore (Greenwich), Dr Beverly Joshua (Greenwich), Dr Peter Carter OBE (Chair, NMA)
Matt Burrow, Her Royal Highness, Robert Rigby, Sonja Curtis
Brigadier (Retd) Alison McCourt CBE ARRC
Her Royal Highness with Bursary Buddy recipients after presentation
John Drewry, Eunice Drewry, Dr Amit Aggarwal, James Salt, Sonja Curtis, Her Royal Highness, Alison McCourt
Guests at the event included the Lord Mayor of Westminster Robert Rigby, Deputy Lord Lieutenant for Greenwich Matt Burrow, other NMA Trustees, and nursing alumni from the University of Greenwich.
The event closed with Her Royal Highness presenting three students with their Bursary Buddy certificates.
The students awarded the bursaries were: Marcelle Guinther (3rd year BSc Adult Nursing); Mawuko Odamptey (3rd year BSc Adult Nursing; Abbey Eke (2nd year BSc Mental Health Nursing), as well as May Akogun (3rd year BSc Children’s Nursing) and Blessing Bosompim (3rd year BSc Adult Nursing) who were both unable to attend.