Did you know that we have 334 colleagues in our hospitals from the Philippines?

So it was important that we marked Philippines Independence Day this week. We had colourful stalls offering local food with staff in traditional dress at our hospitals. And we also spoke to one of our long-serving Filipino nurses, Rizza Javier for this week’s In Conversation With interview.

Rizza, who joined us in 2012, is our senior sister on Fern ward at King George Hospital. She tells us what inspired her to be a nurse and why she moved to the UK in 2005.

The Mayor of Havering, Councillor Michael Deon Burton, visited Queen’s Hospital on Friday (7 June), to join our celebrations as part of the national Volunteers’ Week.

Children from two local schools visited Queen’s Hospital this week to delight our patients, staff and visitors by singing popular songs, including favourites from musical The Greatest Showman.

It’s Volunteers’ Week (1-7 June), which we’re marking with a range of events and activities to celebrate and thank our wonderful volunteers.

We spoke to one of our dedicated volunteers, wayfinder Charlie Richardson, for this week’s In Conversation With. Charlie, who is also a patient partner for our Outpatients team, has volunteered at our Trust for two years, starting out as a way to say thank you for the great care his wife received when she was treated at our Trust for breast cancer 15 years ago.

We know there are lots of very interesting people in our Trust, whether through thie work, their interests or their hobbies outside work. We want to get to know them and share their story. So here is the next instalment of our series: In Conversation With…Lynn Griffiths, admissions officer for our Endoscopy team, who retires from our Trust this month after 46 years!

If you or someone close to you should become unwell over the Bank Holiday weekend, there are lots of options for you to get the care you need, saving you a long wait, so you can get back to enjoying your extra time off.

As it’s Dementia Action Week (20 to 26 May), we spoke to Alina Stevens, a nursing associate from our Dementia team. She’s wanted to work with dementia patients since she was just 11 when she was taken to the care home where her step-mum worked as punishment for misbehaving at school!

Our senior sister Nicola Loncke, has worked at our Trust for her entire career, starting her training with us in 1996. She’s spent most of her time on our neuro intensive care unit, and it was here that she recently made a difficult time that bit easier for a patient’s family, shortly before they died.

Read on to find out why Nicola was one of our You Made a Difference award winners.

If Nicola’s story inspires you to nominate someone from our team who has helped make a difference for you, you can find a nomination form here.

We’re marking the national Dementia Action Week, from Monday 20 to Sunday 26 May, by encouraging you to follow in the footsteps of our staff and become Dementia Friends.

Several members of our team completed the recent London Marathon, so we thought we’d speak to one of them for this week’s In Conversation With interview.

Mike Exford, 29, has been at our Trust since 2013 working as a physiotherapist and found he really enjoyed supporting our patients who’d had amputations. Last year, he joined our Red 2 Green team, which works to make each day in hospital count for our patients so they can get home quicker.

This was his second London Marathon and both times he’s completed it, he’s raised money for a worthy cause close to his heart – this time for a horse riding charity which works with disabled people, and has helped his niece Ellamay, 13. Mike also started karate when he was six because he wanted to be a Power Ranger – and he’s even got a red Power Ranger morph suit in his wardrobe!