Woodleigh Christian Care Home

In this weather, there is no better feeling than digging out the shorts from the wardrobe, applying liberal amounts of suncream, and heading straight to the nearest sound of nursery rhymes coming from the Ice Cream Van! Normally you would have to go to the nearest park or town centre to find one of these British traditions, however at Woodleigh, the Ice cream comes to us!

Our friendly neighbourhood ice cream man parks up in the car park, opens his shutters, and gets to work, selling the very best real ice creams, ice lollies, and cold drinks. The Residents and staff all love to have 10 minutes relaxing in the sun (or shade) with a delicious treat. Keep your eye on our facebook page for news on when he will be with us again!

 

With the weather being as nice as it is at the minute, we took advantage of the opportunity to get some added vitamin D with our meal! We took the tables outside into our beautiful garden, set up the parasols to give some shade from the suns rays, put our suncream and hats on and tucked in to our dinner!

Residents, staff and visitors all enjoyed the chance to be outside together in the fresh air, laughing and joking and making new friends.

As you might be aware, WoodleighCare entered the Great British Care awards last year, a national competition which highlights outstanding care. WoodleighCare itself were a finalist out of over 2000 nominations in the regional finals for the Care Employer Award! The event was held at ‘The Belfry’ in Nottingham, where we enjoyed a 3 course meal, followed by an academy awards style ceremony. We are pleased to announce that we won! We received a trophy and a certificate, and progressed onto the National Finals!

Following our success at the Regional finals, we were honoured and excited to attend our second national final in 2 years! The event was held in Birmingham and was a celebration of the UK’s greatest achievements in care in the last year. The organisers put on a fantastic evening and the awards ceremony was hosted by none other than Martin Kemp of Spandau Ballet and TV’s Eastenders.

Martin spent the evening visiting the finalists and posing for photos, before stepping into his role to present the awards. The amount of talent and dedication in the room was amazing to see, and every person and team that were nominated were worthy of the award. Unfortunately we were pipped to the post by some incredible candidates.

However we didn’t leave empty handed. Unbeknownst to him, one of our volunteers and close friends Reverend Bob Jones, was nominated for the unpaid carer award. He had been invited as a special guest, and thought the he was there to enjoy the evening. Little did he know that he was really there to receive an award for all of the dedication and care that he gives to his wife.  Needless to say Bob was speechless and we couldn’t be prouder to be able to call him our friend!

Congratulations Bob and Joan!

The photos of the evening are available to view online now here on the Great British Care Awards website.

Yesterday we waved our wonderful Mr Renshaw off to the ‘Nottinghamshire Care Awards’ held by the Nottinghamshire Evening Post. Don had been shortlisted for the “Special Recognition” award to acknowledge his continued love and dedication he had shown his wife Hilary since she joined us at Woodleigh in 2010, and his continued support of Woodleigh. He arrives everyday to see her, suited and booted as if it was their first date, and eats every meal with her to keep the intimacy of their relationship alive.

Don went to the awards accompanied by his son Kevin, and our Chaplain Helen Curzon. He was treated to a 3 course meal and drinks, and was able to enjoy the brilliant atmosphere that only a care awards can produce. He had a fantastic time, and even though he didn’t win, (he came a brilliant second) Don thoroughly enjoyed himself, ad received the recognition he deserves for the dedication he has shown to Hilary.

To read about the awards, click here.

To read about the other awards we have been involved in, click here.

 It isn’t very often that we have a Resident Celebrating 10 years at Woodleigh! But that is exactly what has happened today! Our  very own Barrie Henson moved into Woodleigh in 2007 and we haven’t had a boring day since! He is always full of smiles and laughter with his own unique sense of humour, and to celebrate this anniversary we pulled out all of the stops!

Before coming to live with us, Barrie loved nothing more than going out on his motorbike and being on the open road, and as a special treat for him, we took Barrie and some of his friends to CMC Motorcycles in Chesterfield to see some of the bikes they had on show, and even found the one that he used to ride!

When we got back to Woodleigh, we had a Buffet lunch and one of Barrie’s favourite entertainers sang in the afternoon! Thank you Barrie for all of the laughs, and here’s to the next 10 years!