Meet Lizzie- our Children’s Star Award winner!

Meet Lizzie!

Lizzie Dodd is one of our fabulous Clinical Nurse Specialists working as part of the Sheffield Eating Disorders Assessment and Treatment Team (SEDATT) and has just won our Children’s Star Award!

Our Children’s Star Award is nominated by patients, parents or carers for individuals who have provided exceptional care and consistently gone the extra mile. These nominations are then discussed by a panel made up of Sheffield Children’s staff who ultimately choose our winner, which was announced on Friday 29 September at our annual Star Awards event.

Lizzie was nominated by Poppy, a patient at Sheffield Children’s, and mum Victoria. Poppy and Victoria first visited Sheffield Children’s over 18 months ago, which is when they first met Lizzie. Over the course of their treatment, Lizzie has supported Poppy and her family as they have continued their journey towards recovery. Poppy said: “Lizzie made me feel really safe and relieved like a lot of pressure has been taken off my back. [Lizzie] really, really, really deserves this award! [She has] made me feel like the kid I used to be again.”

Having previously worked in roles focusing on adult mental health, Lizzie also has extensive experience as a nurse working with patients with eating disorders. Lizzie has now worked at  at Sheffield Children’s for almost two years and is able to support our patients and families in a variety of different ways. She said: “I support our children and young people during their treatment here at Sheffield Children’s with the goal of easing them back into the community. I support between 12 and 14 families at any one time and even support colleagues with questions and training whilst also holding a drop-in session for those who want to learn more about eating disorders.”

Throughout her time here, Lizzie has been supported by her fantastic team and is proud that they have a strong desire to continuously develop the service that they offer our children and young people. She said: “Our team is super compassionate and passionate when it comes to eating disorders. We’re always thinking about how we can help our children and young people and we’re all super determined to make a difference. For instance, the team have helped me to create a brief intervention service, which means that our patients and families do not need to receive a diagnosis in order to receive treatment for an eating disorder. We all want to drive the service forward!”

As part of her role, Lizzie believes that it is important to build relationships with our patients and families as she helps them navigate the services offered by the team at Sheffield Children’s. She said: “To be able to build trust and build a relationship with our children and young people, it gives me goosebumps! To actually have that time with them to build that rapport and to genuinely make a difference – it makes me feel emotional. We’re often side by side with our patients and families for up to a year and you become a part of that journey, a part of the family, the extra piece of the puzzle, and I think the best part of it is walking side by side with them on our journey.”

As part of a special surprise video shown to Lizzie prior to our Star Awards event, Poppy was able to let Lizzie know how much her support had helped her throughout her time at Sheffield Children’s, particularly highlighting Lizzie’s boundless energy. She said: “I’d like to say a massive thank you for everything you’ve done and thank you for being so energetic in the morning when I’m just not!”

We’d like to join Poppy and Victoria in thanking Lizzie for all of her hard work over the past year and give her a massive Sheffield Children’s congratulations on her wonderful recent achievement!