The Susie Wilkinson Research Award recognises and supports a member of Marie Curie staff who has made significant progress developing their research skills and experience.
About the award
The Susie Research Wilkinson Award was established on Susie’s retirement in 2005 from her post as Head of the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research unit at UCL. The award was founded in recognition of Susie's significant contribution to palliative care research and Marie Curie Cancer Care in establishing the Unit at the Royal Free in 1999.
The award is targeted at Marie Curie healthcare assistants, allied health professionals, doctors, and nurses.
The prize is £1,000, which is to be used on professional development. The award is presented each year at our annual research conference.
How to make a nomination for this award
Details on how to submit a nomination will be communicated to Marie Curie staff through our internal channels. If you have a question about this nomination process, please email research.info@mariecurie.org.uk.
This year's winner
Colette Parfitt (Physiotherapist)
Panel decision:
Colette demonstrates great understanding for the importance of using evidence to inform clinical practice. She leads a local falls group at the hospice who work to reduce the number of falls in the hospice setting. She evaluated and identified the need for a more tailored approach, leading to the development and implementation of the Falls Early Warning Score chart. Recognising the importance of evaluating staff confidence and the impact FEWS assessment tool, she collaborated with the Research Team to secure a Marie Curie internal research grant in 2023, developing her research skills while continuing her full-time clinical role as a physiotherapist. Read more about her research.
Colette plans to use her prize money to attend an international conference to disseminate her work further.
Last year's award winner:
Rekha Vijayshankar (Deputy Head of Quality and Clinical Governance in London at Marie Curie).
Panel decision:
Rekha has made significant contributions towards making Marie Curie Hospice, Hampstead a research-active hospice during her time as a research nurse. Rekha has provided immense detail and depth within her work and many research projects and she also supported clinical and non-clinical colleagues with using the right evidence in the right way to plan, deliver and evaluate service and care.
Rekha plans to use her prize money to attend an international conference to give a presentation on minoritised communities and their needs for promoting greater equity in palliative care access. She also intends to use the prize money toward a course in research methods and tools to deepen her knowledge.
