Charter medals go to Linda Stone and Martin Bennett
The medal winners with the President |
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Charter gold medal for 2004 has been awarded to Linda Stone, Treasurer and past president of the Society. The Charter silver medal has been awarded to Martin Bennett, of Sheffield.
Presenting the medals at a ceremony before the Society’s annual
general meeting on 12 May, the President, Gill Hawksworth, said that
the medals, instituted in 1963, are awarded by the Council on the recommendation
of the President. The gold medal recognises outstanding services rendered
by a member to the Society or, generally, in promoting the interests
of pharmacy. The silver medal recognises outstanding services rendered
by a member locally or to a specific sector of the profession.
Presenting the gold medal, the President said that Linda Stone, a consultant
pharmacist, had been a member of Council for nearly the whole of the
past 23 years. She is the first woman to have served as vice-president,
president and treasurer.
Mrs Stone has a particular interest in education, said the President.
As chairman of the Education Committee from 1997 to 2003, she did much
to ensure the success of the continuing professional development pilot.
She also chaired the committee dealing with the Quality Assurance Agency’s
subject review of pharmacy and served on the Department of Health steering
committee on pharmacy postgraduate education. She chaired the Society’s
degree accreditation working party for many years. Recently, as chairman
of the Adjudicating Committee, she led the development of new policies
and procedures to ensure open, robust and transparent processes.
Mrs Stone is a lay member of the General Chiropractic Council and chairs
its education committee. She has held positions in national bodies such
as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, the National Forum
for Coronary Heart Disease Prevention and the Accident Prevention Trust.
She serves on the committees of the Society’s West Midlands region
and Birmingham branch and is a former branch chairman.
In 2002 she was elected international vice-president and governing bureau
member of the International Pharmaceutical Federation. She was a member
of the executive committee of the federation’s community pharmacy
section from 1991 to 1999.
The President concluded: “Linda’s contribution to the profession
of pharmacy has been enormous and she is absolutely deserving of this
award.”
Mrs Stone, in reply, said that the honour was really a tribute to the
many people without whose endeavour and support she would not have been
able to achieve a fraction of that with which she had been credited.
She said that she had been privileged to serve on the Council for two
years alongside her father [the late Maxwell Gordon] — the only
time a parent and child had served together. She was the first woman
to have a baby after election to the Council. She was the first female
treasurer in 163 years. And she was the first child of a Charter medal
winner to be similarly honoured, her father having received the Charter
silver medal in 1971.
She had been fortunate to be involved in some interesting projects over
the years. Her involvement in education had given her enormous satisfaction,
but she also wished to refer to an international project — good
pharmacy practice in developing countries. Through the Commonwealth Pharmaceutical
Association, she had been privileged to run a pilot education project
last year in Ghana. “The enthusiasm and thirst for knowledge of
colleagues in developing countries is infinite and never ceases to amaze
me,” she said.
Mrs Stone said that her achievments could not have come about without
the support of her parents, her husband Clive and her children Andrew
and Deborah.
Presenting the silver medal, the President said that Martin Bennett is
joint chairman and managing director of Associated Chemists (Wicker)
Ltd, Sheffield, which he joined in 1973. The company has about 50 staff
providing an extended hours service 365 days a year, as well as supplying
equipment for disabled persons and specialist pharmacy fittings.
He is a member of the Prescription Pricing Authority board and has served
on the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee and the National
Pharmaceutical Association board. Within Sheffield he is administrator
of Sheffield’s co-ordinated service for drug users, administrator
and participant of the community pharmacy research network (set up in
1998 by the Trent NHS region) and secretary (since 1988) of the local
pharmaceutical committee. As LPC secretary he was instrumental in getting
funding for a pharmacy development officer, as a result of which Sheffield
has been progressive in terms of minor ailments, supervised methadone
and other models for colleagues to follow. He was a pioneer in producing “pharmacy
practice” leaflets and created the Sheffield “hub and spoke” model
for developing independent pharmacy services.
The silver medal recognised his outstanding service to the profession
in Yorkshire.
Mr Bennett, in reply, thanked family and friends who had made his success
possible.
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