Demonstrating compassion and imagination when it comes to counselling patients and capturing people’s interest in healthy living topics, Katie Francis is described as “an asset to her team and local community”

Not many people can claim to have had a health initiative named after them, but that is precisely the case for Katie Francis. She used the sexual health training she had undertaken while working as a healthy living champion in a branch of Day Lewis to offer her services to a local “Big Brother” group that helps vulnerable children. It was so successful that it evolved into an “Ask for Katie” scheme, whereby anyone could come in to her branch and ask to see her. It is therefore fitting that she won the Healthy Living Advisor Award, sponsored by Sanofi.

Now a dispensing assistant and health champion at Day Lewis on Norwich Road in Ipswich, Katie runs a walking group to help older people increase their activity levels, and highlights its social benefits and other positive effects on health. Her displays – often done in her own time – are always talking points, and range from topics as big as diabetes to as small as encouraging people to make incremental lifestyle changes such as counting steps and walking up stairs in order to promote wellness.

Katie has built on the work she has done at other branches of the company, first in Thetford, Norfolk, where she specialised in sexual health (the store still runs the “Ask for Katie” programme, even though their eponymous heroine has moved on), and then as healthy living leader at Ravenswood, Suffolk, where she brainstormed with store colleagues to develop campaigns that met the needs of the local community. These included drawing attention to the amount of sugar in popular children’s drinks, the importance of blood pressure checks, and inviting people to guess the number of alcohol units in well-known beverages.

Myra Battle, the Spotlight Award winner in 2016, supported Katie’s entry, calling her “an innovative leader” and drawing attention to the difference she made to a customer with mental health problems who confided that he was thinking of taking his own life. Myra, who works for Suffolk LPC, appreciates the help Katie gives her in updating the organisation’s Facebook page, which inspires other pharmacies to try to emulate her campaigns.

Further support for Katie’s entry came from her line manager Katie Bullock, who said: “She is very passionate about healthy living and loves being part of the community. Dispensing assistant Tammy Pearce, added that Katy is “an asset to the team and to the local community”. Well’s superintendent pharmacist and Awards judge Janice Perkins was impressed at how Katie “has challenged herself to improve the health awareness of her community in a number of key areas” and Numark’s professional development head Laura Reed said: “The ‘Ask for Katie’ scheme is a wonderful example of how a very simple idea can help overcome conversation barriers when asking for advice, especially on sensitive issues.”

NPA chief pharmacist Leyla Hannbeck commented on how Katie is “perceptive of patients’ and local needs” and Avicenna chief executive Salim Jetha praised her imagination and innovation, which has resulted in a much broader outreach that would otherwise have been the case.

Now Katie is based in just one store – although she enjoyed the breadth of experience she gained from working in nearly all the Day Lewis branches in the area – she has embarked on her pharmacy technician training, as well as carrying out all the day-to-day tasks that come with being a dispensing assistant and health champion. The latter involves training the team on the HLP aspects of the business, which she considers of utmost importance, saying: “The girls I work with are outstanding and I couldn‘t do what I do without them.”