Belfast duo receive British Empire Medals for services to Marie Curie and palliative care

Lesley Rutherford, from Newtownabbey, has received a BEM award for her services to palliative care patients during a nursing career which spans more than 45 years.

Kathy Loughridge, from South Belfast, also received a BEM award in recognition of her fundraising achievements for Marie Curie, which has totalled in excess of £1 million.

Kathy’s involvement with the end of life charity began eighteen years ago, when her brother, Joe, was diagnosed with lung cancer and died just ten weeks after his diagnosis, aged 54.

Within nine months, Kathy’s mother, Annie, was also diagnosed with lung cancer and began receiving end of life care at the charity’s hospice on Kensington Road in Belfast.

Tragically, Kathy’s sister, Ann, received a diagnosis of lung cancer just three months later and, after receiving hospice care at home, died in hospital aged just 46 - two days after the death of her mother.

Reflecting on that time, Kathy said: “Over that period, we spent so much time with Marie Curie Nurses, whether at the hospice or at my sister’s home, and as a family we were blown away by the care and the quality of treatment they provided to my brother, mother and sister. Trying to take care of my mother and sister, who were both terminally ill at the same time, was really tough, but Marie Curie took a huge amount of that weight off us so we could look after ourselves and our wider family.

“I started to think that I would like to give something back to say ‘thank you’ for what they had done for us, so I organised my first event, ‘Annie’s Walk’, in memory of my mum, sister and brother. A couple of hundred members of family and friends got together for a walk in Barnett Demesne, and it was such a successful event that we thought, ‘let’s keep this going’.

“From there, along with my good friends Mark Hanna and Susie Colgan, we arranged lots of fundraising events from fashion shows to coffee mornings, and everything in between. We decided we wanted to participate in a big trek to Everest Base Camp that Marie Curie was organising, and that we would run a gala ball to help fundraise for the trip. This was where the ‘Time Ball’ first began. We called it the ‘Time Ball’ to symbolise the importance of the time we have with our loved ones, and how significant that time is when you don’t have much of it left.

“Our first Time Ball in 2011 raised about £50,000 for Marie Curie, and over the next 13 years, we held six more Time Ball events which have continued to grow year on year. Our last event in the Europa Hotel in November 2024, raised more than £200,000 for the charity.”

Lesley Rutherford, who is Nurse Consultant at Marie Curie, says she was ‘genuinely shocked’ to learn that she had been nominated for her BEM award, but believes that it is a recognition of not only her work but also the work of colleagues who provide care and support to people requiring palliative and end of life care.

Lesley said: “Although the award may be in my name, I feel it is also a recognition of the work of all those staff and volunteers who strive to provide good palliative and end of life care. I would like to express my gratitude to all the colleagues I have worked with over the years and, most importantly, to those patients and their families and carers who have allowed me to walk alongside them at a very vulnerable time in their lives.

“As the need for specialist palliative care services continues to increase, my hope is that more funding will become available to enable us to continue providing this essential care and also to enable us to develop services further within this area.”