AN ANDOVER healthcare assistant has been highly commended at a prestigious national awards ceremony.

Elaine Cooney was recognised in this year’s Royal College of Nursing Awards, after being shortlisted in the healthcare assistant category.

Mrs Cooney, who lives in Andover but works in the critical care department at Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, was nominated by a former colleague for her work in helping cancer patients preparing for major surgery.

The 56-year-old, who attended the awards ceremony in London earlier this month, said: “It was an amazing night and I had a great time.

“It was an honour to be there and I could not believe it when I heard them say that I was highly commended.

“I was really pleased.

Mrs Cooney, who has been a healthcare assistant for more than 20 years, added: “Two of the judges were sat on the table with me.

“They said that they don’t normally announce a highly commended finalist, but that it had been a really difficult choice between me and the winner.”

Mrs Cooney’s work centres around her support of patients preparing for surgery on pseudomyxoma peritonei – a rare form of cancer that requires a major operation.

Basingstoke Hospital is one of just two centres in the country to carry out the surgery.

The Andover resident talks to patients about to undergo surgery, to help them understand what to expect, regularly giving up her own time to introduce them to the intensive care unit in advance of their operations.

Mrs Cooney previously carried out an audit on the positive effect that these visits have on patients and relatives.

She was invited to showcase her findings at the International Congress on Peritoneal Surface Malignancies in Washington DC.

She has also given up her own time to redecorate the relatives’ room in the intensive care unit, making it a more comfortable and pleasant place for patients’ families to be.

Mrs Cooney said: “Helping to prepare pseudomyxoma patients for their time on the intensive care unit ahead of their operations is something that is really important to me.

“It’s a big, long operation and the thought of going into intensive care can be frightening.

“By showing them around, hopefully I can take that daunting element away.”