Dietitians achieve double success in Nutrition Awards | News

Two Royal Surrey specialist dietitians scored a double success in the Complete Nutrition (CN) Awards 2022 and enjoyed a celebratory afternoon tea at the awards ceremony last month.

Winning ‘Outstanding Achievement of the Year’ Mary Phillips, HPB Specialist Dietitian, was recognised for her commitment to patient care and significant contribution to the field of pancreatic nutrition.

Lindsey Allan, Macmillan Oncology Dietitian, won ‘CN Writer of the Year’ alongside co-authors Dr Alison Culkin and Nick Bergin for an article about dietary management of bowel obstruction.

Mary, who was the first non-medical President of the Pancreatic Society, represents UK dietetics on several national and international bodies (NICE, NCEPOD, ESPEN, EPC and UEG*) and recently published the first UK guidelines on managing pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, said: “I feel honoured to have been nominated and really delighted to have won the award.

“I’d like to thank all those who nominated and voted for me. I feel very privileged to work with an amazing team who have supported me throughout my career.

“We are lucky in our team to have fantastic support from our head of department (Tanya Klopper), which helps us enormously. As a team, Royal Surrey’s Dietitians have a high profile nationally and internationally. There are a lot of drivers within our department, people who have achieved a huge amount, and this has helped put us on the map, it is an amazingly supportive team to work within.

“Receiving these two awards helps us further raise the profile of our department and the Trust.”

Commenting on her CN Writer of the Year award, Lindsey said: “I’ve developed a four-stage diet for patients at risk of bowel obstruction and I’m currently running a research study looking at the effect this has on their symptoms.

“Bowel obstruction is a horrendous condition, which significantly impacts our patients’ quality of life. Providing nutrition support is an important aspect of care and I’m really pleased that winning this award will help raise awareness about the condition and how we’re working to try and improve it as it’s a very new area of dietetics.”

(*Abbreviations - NICE - National Institute for health and care excellence , NCEPOD - National Confidential enquiry into patient outcomes and death, ESPEN - European society of parenteral and enteral nutrition, EPC - European pancreatic club;  UEG - United European gastroenterology.)

Pictured above: Lindsay Allan, Tanya Klopper and Mary Phillips.