Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust long-service awards

Graham Curwen MBE and nurse Max Oosman were thanked at a Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCft) Board meeting earlier this month, where they were they each received special commemorative 50 year service awards to mark their combined century working in health services.

The accolades come as part of a Trustwide ‘thank you’ from LSCft to their staff, where over 4,000 serving colleagues have been rewarded for over 90,000 collective years in the NHS with badges celebrating five, 10, 20, 40 and 50 years’ service.

Max Oosman, a recent winner at The Sun’s Who Cares Wins Health Awards in the Best Nurse category has worked for the NHS for 52 years.

Max lives in Nelson with his wife Norma, 70, a retired nurse, but he is originally from Mauritius. He left in 1972 aged 19, to train as a nurse in the UK.

Today he is a Community Mental Health Nurse Practitioner who works in the East Lancashire Memory Assessment Service in Burnley. He sees patients who have been referred by their GP for a dementia assessment and one of his roles is having to tell people they have dementia.

Max was chosen to speak at the NHSCON75 last year on the recommendation of Dame Ruth May CEO Nursing England as part of the NHS 75th anniversary celebrations.

This was to celebrate the contribution of the ‘Windrush Generation of Nurses’ from the commonwealth who came over to support the NHS.

Max was also invited by NHS England to attend Westminster Abbey in July 2023 to celebrate the 75 years of the NHS.

Max added: “It was great to be recognised by the Trust for the years I have committed to nursing. I still really enjoy caring for patients and helping them and their families through really tough times.

“I have had a long and rewarding career and I would encourage anyone thinking about becoming a nurse or working in healthcare to definitely do it. You can make such a difference to people’s lives, which is one of the best parts of the job.”

Chair of the Board at LSCft, David Fillingham, said: “It was truly an honour to say a huge thank you to both Max and Graham who have literally dedicated decades of their lives to the NHS and helping patients.

“People say that the NHS is a big family, which is certainly the case here at LSCft, and it very much felt like a family celebration on the day. They are a remarkable duo and we wish Graham a very long, fulfilling and happy future, as he recently left us to retire. He deserves a good rest!

“We hope Max continues to enjoy working for us for many more years to come.”

Before retiring for a second time last month, Graham celebrated working in the NHS for an impressive 52 years.

He spent his career undertaking a huge variety of roles including managing community health services and undertaking projects to integrate GP surgeries and introducing a patient-based community system, which was the first of its kind.