News

Now that we’ve added some new faces to our ever-expanding team at Derian House, let’s hear about who they are and what they’ll be getting up to here at Lancashire and South Cumbria’s children’s hospice!

Amy Collier – Assistant Shop Manager, Accrington

Although she’s actually been with us since the month of May, we didn’t want to stick Amy on the Intranet all by herself – so here’s a brief introduction to our Accrington shop’s assistant manager.

Bristol born-and-bred, Amy has worked in retail all her life, and joined us after an incredible 18-year stretch at Next where she specialised in window dressing. After relocating ‘up North’, Amy wanted to explore the charity retail sector and even began applying for a voluntary role in our Horwich store before seeing that we were opening up a shop in Accrington.

Amy has already put her skills to great use, and has taken ownership of our retail Instagram account, as well as decorating shop windows and helping to prepare for our Charity Shop Lock-In events.

When she’s not at work, Amy absolutely loves vintage shopping, exploring flea markets and charity shops, and participating in hotpod yoga! She’s also an identical twin!

Lauren Prochyra – Youth Worker

Lauren is the latest addition to our Wellbeing & Play Team, and has joined us from Barnardo’s children’s charity. Lauren has previously enjoyed working in the charity sector, and wanted to join the team at Derian House as she’d heard brilliant things!

Our new Youth Worker already has a great deal of experience working with children and young people in need of support, and permanently working from home throughout the pandemic and beyond limited Lauren and made her realise she wanted to be more hands-on in her work.

Throughout her first few weeks here at the hospice, Lauren has enjoyed getting to know our youngsters and already feels like a valued part of the team. Her induction process has seen her work with and get to know different teams, as well as plenty of trips out with our Lodgers!

Outside of work, Lauren loves walking her Doberman, Lola, and even used to have a pet donkey called Tilly!

Linda Pennington – Clinical Support Worker

The first of our two new Clinical Support Workers is lovely Linda, who joins Derian House after a varied career as a nursery nurse and community-based health care support worker.

Despite being passionate about her previous job role, COVID restrictions changed things, and Linda wanted to experience the memory-making side of health care.

16 years ago, Linda’s niece Abbie passed away at Francis House, and ever since then she’d thought about working in palliative care – never thinking that dream would become a reality. Now that her kids are older (26, 23, and 22, to be precise), Linda knew that she wanted to go in this direction and provide support to families who access our services.

When she’s not on shift, family-orientated Linda goes to watch her son play guitar in his band, and her daughters do competitive running. She also enjoys walking, socialising, and spending time with her Mum.

How’s this for a fun fact – Linda has hand-delivered over 1,000 baby lambs during her previous tenure as a farmer’s wife!

Edwina Green – Family Support Worker

Edwina started at the hospice earlier this month in the role of Family Support Worker. After five years working for child bereavement charities nationwide, she saw the job role at Derian as an exciting new opportunity to expand on what she’s done previously.

The new addition to the Family Support Team is both excited and nervous at the prospect of working with families pre-bereavement, however her varied experience in a number of job roles across the country will definitely play up to her advantage.

More than ready to get ‘stuck in’, Edwina is mostly looking forward to being heavily involved in our sibling service, and meeting families from a range of backgrounds. Relationship building was a large factor in why she wanted the job at Derian House, and she’s enthusiastic about helping to provide a totally bespoke and unique service to our families.

When she’s not helping families, Edwina is a huge fan of gardening (even if she does make it up as she goes along!), and is also prone to a spot of lindy hop dancing!

Edwina recently got engaged, and when she’s married next year… will officially be a Bond girl!

Chantal Porter – Clinical Support Worker

Also a newbie in our squad of Clinical Support Workers is Chantal. For the past three years, she’s worked on the pediatric ward at Royal Preston Hospital as a health care assistant.

Growing up in Astley Village alongside Ian Haydock’s daughter Lesley (Ian was the brother of Derek, their names of which were combined to create ‘Derian’), Chantal has always been aware of the hospice, and always wondered what it would be like to work here.

After getting the clinical skills required to work at the hospital, Chantal then made a career leap and started with us here as she desired a working environment that was family-orientated with a focus on children and young people.

Chantal is also no stranger to the fundraising side of things – just last year, she dived 15,000ft out of a plane as part of the inaugural Dive for Derian campaign, raising £1,000 for us in the process.

When she’s not in her scrubs, Chantal is in her hiking gear and up in the Lakes boxing off the Wainwrights!

Vicky Cadley – Derian at Home Team Leader

Last in our line-up is Vicky, Derian at Home’s brand new Team Leader, who’s not long returned from four years working in the United Arab Emirates as a Nurse Manager.

A local lass, Vicky had always known about the work that Derian does due to her previous role at Manchester Children’s Hospital, and her managerial experience out in Dubai has set her up nicely for her new role here at the hospice as part of our community team.

She’s mostly looking forward to getting out in the community, building relationships with our families and helping to fulfil their needs and wishes, and working as part of a wider team to continue improving the bespoke service that we provide.

Vicky is extremely close to her family and friends, and when she’s not working, is prone to a spot of yoga, meditation, and reading. She’s also recently started a hypnotherapy course to further her interest in counselling.