This story is extremely personal and private, so much so, that none of our friends or family are aware.
We first met Nikki in early 2018 at the start of our long, painful, and difficult fertility journey.
Nikki was approachable, warm, empathetic, and caring, although there are other nurses who display similar qualities, the way Nikki personally responds directly via email, phone, or in person is like no other.
In late 2018 after 5 rounds of IUI treatment, we became pregnant, Nikki continued to support and check in on us.
A year ago, in February 2019, our beautiful and much wanted, much-cherished baby daughter was born pre-term and sadly died. Whilst in hospital, I called Nikki to let her know, she immediately dropped everything and came to see us. She sat with us, let me cry, and held me and my daughter.
Throughout my life and experiences of loss and adversity, I've never met another nurse or medical practitioner like Nikki who goes above and beyond. Whilst there are no doubt, other nurses, in other 'more serious' departments, I have not experienced the care and genuine empathy as I have with Nikki.
Even in the midst of losing our baby, I experienced discrimination, lack of care, and medical negligence from other practitioners in the maternity unit/ABC. However, upon making one call to Nikki, she showed a level of care NO ONE in the NHS has ever shown me in over 30 years.
We feel that Nikki going above and beyond in many different ways, whether it's during treatment, before, after, or in our case, the death of our baby daughter should be and needs to be recognized and honoured.
I don't think that I/we are alone in thanking Nikki. The work she does is often extremely private and under-recognised and doesn't have the same glamour or glory as other aspects of medicine. Without droning on, I'm not sure where we'd be in our journey with our family, grieving and trusting the NHS after our lack of care if it wasn't for the support and care of Nikki.
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This is Nikki's second DAISY Award!