ADVER TISEMENT FEA TURE Celebrating care heroes with WASHCO’s 2021 Love Laundry Awards


Having supported care and nursing homes throughout the pandemic, it quickly became apparent to the team here at WASHCO how hard laundry teams have been working to keep their residents and colleagues safe. To give the sector an opportunity to celebrate these laundry room heroes, we launched the Love Laundry Awards.


After reading through so many brilliant and worthy entries, we were delighted to welcome our Individual and Team finalists to this year’s Care Show at the Birmingham NEC, where we announced the winners. Below, we would like to share the winners’ inspiring nominations.


Individual award winner: Annmarie Bradshaw, Etheldred House, Excelcare


Annmarie has been working at Etheldred House for 13 years. She works full-time in the laundry and is dedicated and caring, doing so much more than is required of her job role. She truly exceeds all expectations. I frequently find Annmarie in one of the houses during mealtimes where she is assisting someone with their meal and when her shift is done at the end of the day, one would usually see her sitting down chatting with a resident. She also frequently assists staff with residents living with dementia when they are unsettled. None of this is asked of Annmarie – she does this out of choice. We recently had a new resident that came to live with us, but he was very distressed after being moved several times from home to home. Annmarie was the only staff member that could encourage him to come into the building. Annmarie’s work is always done to the highest standard, ensuring everything is done before she leaves for the day. She never complains or leaves a task for someone else to sort out, she does it herself. The laundry room is immaculate, and we never receive any complaints about the residents’ clothes, or anything related to the laundry. She takes lots of pride in her workspace. Annmarie leads the housekeeping team in the absence of the housekeeper and inducts new staff. Annmarie always sets a positive example for others. I am very lucky to have a team member like Annmarie working at Etheldred House. She deserves this recognition & award. Santall Horn, general manager, Etheldred House, Excelcare


“I feel so lucky & grateful to be nominated and overwhelmed to have won the award. The experience on the day was lovely and I am grateful to WASHCO for recognising people working in this field. Even though the word ‘thank you’ sounds so insignificant, I really do mean it – thank you WASHCO!” - Annmarie


As our Individual Love Laundry Award winner, Annmarie will receive a domestic Miele washing machine for her own home, fully installed courtesy of our in-house team.


A group of our Love Laundry Awards finalists


Team award winners: Cote Street laundry team, St Monica Trust


Jane Brailsford, Zoe Cook, Fransisco Lopes, Ali Sayed, Jackie Cockwell, Chris Elkins, Vanda Andrade, Katie Skuse, Lisa Stone, Aimee Godfrey & Matthew Cooper.


The team washes laundry for our four care homes around Bristol, often washing around five tonnes of laundry a week. When Covid-19 arrived last year, all staff who worked in the care homes had to wear scrubs which added an extra two tonnes of laundry per week. The laundry team was suddenly required to extend their hours (6am to 9pm) to adjust to the extra scrubs being washed. They worked seven days a week, for the best part of a year to ensure all staff in the care homes had scrubs. There was also additional linen being washed due to infection control procedures. The team did this with smiles on their faces even when face masks were required to be worn in the laundry! The team is hardworking, always smiling, and will go that extra mile for anyone. They are not always recognized for what they do and I would love for them to win an award to celebrate how they have held up St Monica Trust over the last 18 months. Darren Way, estates services manager, St Monica Trust


As our Team Love Laundry Award winner, St Monica Trust will receive a Sonos speaker system for their laundry.


Commenting on the Love Laundry Awards, WASHCO marketing manager, Emily Stoten, said: “It’s been brilliant to hear so many inspirational stories and celebrate those who have gone above and beyond. We’re looking forward to keeping the awards going in 2022 as our way of saying thank you.” Congratulations to our Love Laundry heroes!


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