A Lisbellaw pharmacist is celebrating after being recognised at Northern Ireland's leading awards ceremony - the highly-esteemed annual Pharmacy in Focus awards, which were hosted this year at Titanic Belfast by the province's own Mark Simpson!

The recipient of this year's Pharmacy Hero Award has shown a high degree of dedicated commitment to delivering outstanding service to the pharmacy sector in Northern Ireland in general and to her own community in particular.

Mark Simpson cited off numerous reasons as to why Corinna was named the Pharmacy Hero of this year's Pharmacy in Focus Awards

For many years, she has demonstrated an exceptional and sustained quality of service, and her insight into her community's needs is evidenced by actions such as being one of the first pharmacies to place a defibrillator on the premises.

Her support for her community is legendary and she has been a strong advocate for that community for many years. Over the last few years, for example, she has been proactive in working with the local ambulance service to improve community access following incidents when no ambulances were available to take emergency cases to hospital.

With the nearest GP surgery some five miles away, her focus on health and wellbeing covering all sections of her community, and this, combined with a variety of health initiatives facilitated by her pharmacy, has allowed a high level of accessibility and penetration into all levels of the community, providing an invaluable link into health and social services through the pharmacy.

Her pharmacy has facilitated a broad range of community projects, not only under the umbrella of BCPP, but also various projects with other charities, such as Cruse Bereavement Care. Her charity fundraising and sponsorship of local youth sports teams are ongoing and have become a staple of the pharmacy offering in the local area.

Above all, this pharmacist has demonstrated an inspirational work ethic. Her interaction with her community goes above and beyond what would be expected of a community pharmacy but is no less than what she expects of herself and her team.

In short, this pharmacist is the health hub of her community: the 'go-to' person for all of its health and well-being needs. In short, she is an inspiration to her team, her patients and to all other pharmacists in Northern Ireland.

Needless to say, Colin Dowds, Finance Director for Connect Total Communications was delighted to present the "Chemi" to Corinna Collum.

It's great for Connect Total Communications to support this event which recognises the great work of the Pharmacy profession in Northern Ireland and in particular those that go the extra mile to serve our communities, none more than Corinna, the Pharmacy Hero for this year. Pharmacy services are a vital part of society but unfortunately seem to be under-funded and taken for granted and we are all lucky to have so many dedicated people in the profession who continue to work through this and provide an excellent service. As a company we are delighted to work closely with the Pharmacy profession to provide reliable and trustworthy communication solutions to enable them to work as efficiently as possible in an often-pressurised environment.

Corinna commented on her success; "I'm absolutely delighted to receive this award, but I'm accepting it on behalf of everyone involved in community pharmacy in Northern Ireland. Everyone is a hero in my eyes.'