Having started as a Saturday girl the day after her 16th birthday, Grace Atlee worked her way up the ranks to become non-pharmacist pharmacy manager at Well Pharmacy in Halstead, Essex.

When she started at the pharmacy, they’d had four managers within a year and none of the team had any full qualifications – something she soon changed. Grace set about bringing stability and investing in training, seeing many of the team through dispensing and pharmacy technician courses.

And her commitment to ongoing staff development continues, with 30 minutes set aside for training in work time each month for all team members. “Every month, I also arrange an evening with Domino’s pizza and we all stay behind and go through our training together,” Grace explains.

Pharmacy technician Lucy Atlee – who also happens to be Grace’s proud mum – nominated Grace for the Team Leader Award, saying: “Grace has proven to be a shining light who leads our team with hard work and dedication to her staff and customers. This last year has been incredibly difficult for all of the team and we don’t know what we would have done without her.”

But Grace doesn’t see herself as having done anything out of the ordinary. “I just do my job every day. I’m the first in and last to leave,” she says. “And I make sure everyone has a cup of tea – that’s very important.”

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