AN OMAGH-based Ambulance Service (NIAS) station manager has been awarded the UK-wide Exceptional Paramedic Manager Award at the Ambulance Leadership Forum Annual Conference – the first such award received by a Northern Ireland-based station manager.

Gillian Furniss (née McVitty), an Aghadrumsee native who is based in Omagh Ambulance Station, received the award last month, with station manager Gillian saying she was “surprised and humbled” to receive the award.

Although Gillian is the first station manager in Northern Ireland to have received this specific UK-wide award, the organisation has received some awards from the conference in previous years.

Gillian has been in the NIAS for 22 years, joining in June, 1999. She became a paramedic in 2003, and in March, 2020, she was appointed station manager in Omagh – nine days before Covid-19 was declared a pandemic.

Speaking on her promotion during a pandemic, Gillian said: "Obviously there were massive challenges because we were all getting used to a whole new way of working, and that’s why my area manager, Laura Coulter, nominated me for this award a couple of months ago.

“We had to be here throughout outbreaks, and Covid outbreaks in staff, and that was challenging.

"We were losing crews and people were off sick, and you were then worrying about people, because it was very much unknown with Covid, and we didn’t want anyone to get unwell.

"Our working practice changed so much with PPE, and all of our staff had to learn new ways of working.”

Gillian also had to balance working in the pandemic with being a mum to two children (aged 7 and 8), and she also had to deal with home schooling while still fulfilling her role as station manager.

Although Gillian missed out on a gala ball to mark the occasion of her prestigious accolade from the Ambulance Leadership Forum Annual Conference, her crewmates in Omagh threw her a small celebration to mark the occasion.