Your stories…

During the pandemic, like many others I lost my beloved father. Only being allowed 10 people at the funeral, with no wake or social contact made what was a very difficult time so much harder. My father was a keen gardener and loved being outdoors. Being able to plant a tree in memoriam would be a wonderful tribute to him. Thank you xxx

A period of time that I never would have imagined; Closures of departments, redeployment to areas never explored previously. Juggling work life and home schooling! With it came feelings of worry and uncertainty. However, there was also a strange sense of calm with the lockdown. We were some of the privileged few who could continue to work. The quietness of the roads, even deer walking freely upon my route to work in the mornings. Making new friends with new work colleagues and a rare glimpse…

Redeployment to COVID ICU to help nurse critically ill patients was scary, difficult and exhausting. My amazing colleagues on ICU were so supportive and made the whole situation less terrifying. My tree is in memory of the patients who I came to know who sadly passed, and the few who happily were discharged from hospital to return to their loved ones.

The height of the pandemic was such a weird time, so many poorly people. New ways of working. Learning to put on and take off PPE. It was scary and new and such a departure from what we knew before. Seeing people be ventilated or just struggling to breathe. Staff members tired and scared. worried for their families and friends. And yet the most inspiring thing was seeing staff members carry on and do the job in front of them, day after day, week after week. The strength of our team and our…

When COVID first became apparent, I was a ward nurse. The initial phase saw the wards empty due to public fear. It was a surreal experience but at this point, I now know that the community teams were taking the brunt of the first wave. As the virus took a hold more and more patients were admitted and soon the wards were full. It was a case of dig deep and just get stuck in. There was no other option but to work as a team to keep the flow through the hospital. I had my fair share of relocations…

I worked as a band 4 during the pandemic and worked extra shifts as a band 2. The pandemic brought professional and personal challenges. We saw lots of poorly patients, the fact that patients could not have visitors meant that we had to be there even more for them spring them through their worst nightmares sometimes. I am in awe of my intensive care colleagues who are beyond amazing. I would like to thank my family, including me husband, mum, sister's but Most importantly my daughter who…

I signed up for temporary work in 2020 to help during the pandemic. When my contract ended I was offered a permanent position as a Housekeeper. I worked on a very busy COVID ward, which was a real eye-opener into how much the virus had taken over everybody's lives. It was truly heartbreaking. I knew at this point I wanted to do more for the patients so I signed up and trained to become a Health Care Support Worker. I love my job, it is extremely rewarding. I work with a fantastic team, we…

The day the country went into lockdown was also the day my wonderful mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She died six weeks later. Trying to adjust to working during the pandemic has been difficult for all of of us. Caring for, and then grieving for my mum has made the past two years incredibly tough. Along the way I have met some truly incredible people who are a credit to the NHS and I hope that we can slowly return to a normal way of life. Whatever that is. I’m planting this tree for my…

I have worked for the Trust for 27yrs, based at Louth County hospital. One day in March, when I arrived on the ward, I was told I was being redeployed as of tomorrow to Lincoln County, working on the COVID 19 ward ( Neustadt Welton). As you can imagine, I was petrified. Looking back now, in a strange sort of way I am grateful I had the privilege to be part of a team that was dealing with something that we knew very little about. I described the experience to my family as it being like a war…

At the start of the Pandemic the guidance on how to treat our Cancer patients change on an hourly basis. It was very difficult to keep up and to ensure we had the right policies in place. Some of the changes were related to a clinical trial outcome having been published during those early days and we were fortunate enough to have everything in place to implement the guidance quickly. The strain on the staff including me was very high, as these changes came quickly and changed the overall working…

Well for me, I didn't really see any changes, other than supporting my team through hard times, which is nothing new for us on a day to day basis.

At the beginning of the pandemic, I was new to the role of a manager. Life and the job were turned on their heads. There was fear of the unknown and our team were redeployed to the hospitals to support. I was supporting the team and our patients, who were funded by the NHS. A lot of my time was spent reassuring, listening and offering practical advice, sourcing PPE for care homes and patients employing their own care staff, to support them with long term conditions. As nurses, we are used to…

Complaints received many harrowing stories of relatives being unable to say goodbye to their loved ones and not being able to hold their hands as they passed away. It was difficult in these circumstances to be unable to change this situation for them, as our job is to resolve issues. It seems a strange thing to say, but I was glad that my mum and dad had both passed before the pandemic so that I was not in the same situation and was able to be with them when they died. I do not have a…

My Mum died in March 2020 and as she was in a care home I was not able to see her before she died. Neither could I see her on the day she died. The thing that helped me through was to bear witness to the remarkable response of our social care and health care key workers, including those who held my Mum's hand as she died, and knowing that in my stead they helped my Mum rest peacefully. This remarkable act was repeated thousands and thousands of times by people across our health and care during…

It was a tough time for all, and I never thought that I would ever experience anything like this. It was so warming for all the support everyone gave to the NHS for their hard work and dedication.

I was off sick after suffering a traumatic brain injury throughout the pandemic, so had to sit and watch my colleagues battle on through some of the worst times of their careers. My tree is in recognition and inspired of their heroism.

At the beginning of COVID-19, it was frightening. I continued to work at base and reduced face to face visits, but continued to keep in contact with service users. My daughter got COVID early on but luckily was not too unwell. She worked on a ward at Pilgrim where one of her colleagues sadly died of COVID. One of our consultants also got COVID and was in ICU for a long time, but sadly lost his life. The good thing was time to enjoy the basics of life - calm down, enjoy nature and our…

I am an admin lady and I just kept coming into work to support my colleagues. At first I was re-deployed to a previous job I had done, which was in switchboard, but it soon became apparent that COVID had not hit our part of the country and I went back to work in my current role. Nothing major happened to us in our department in the beginning, but more and more of our departmental staff have been off with the current bout of COVID, which means we have to cope with the extra work.

My memory is learning to recognise people by their eyes when clad in full PPE. The eyes tell you a lot and slowly over time they lost their sparkle. A smile can be worn on faces, voices can be made to sound bright and happy, but the eyes - they tell a true story. To see the eyes lose their sparkle and fade over time is not a good thing to see. Many nurses lost their sparkle, but now slowly thanks to all around them, there is a new light starting to appear. The light and shine of a conquering…

A tree will represent the future and remembrance for people that have suffered by the pandemic.