6
1. View of Tower Bridge, London 2. Inside London City Hall 3. Joanne Tordoff, Helen Butters, Janette Benaddi and Bridget Logan 4. Melanie Hamer and David Gleghorn 5. Rob Turnbull, Raheel Mirza, Dave Lampard and Kay Varlas 6. Karl English and Lorna Towndrow 7. Sara Hale, Hayley Smith, David Gleghorn, Sally Vennard, Sadikah Patel, Katrina Walker and Tom Pickles 8. Karl Hamer reflects on Pf Awards 9. Daniel Davies and Richard Johnson
LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCE
7 “And it’s why the Pf Awards Assessment Day is designed to challenge you professionally and ensure that only the top candidates are recognised on the big screen and stage.” Thanking the Pf Award Winners Club sponsors, Melanie added: “Ashfield, CHASE and Star have kindly sponsored this evening for us. They, along with many other commercial sponsors, have been great supporters of Pf Awards over the years and I would like to personally thank them. Without them, this evening would not be possible.” Melanie then undertook the roll call of Pf Award Winners, inviting them to the stage individually to receive their Pf Award Winners badge. Winners came from as far back as 2000 and as recently as 2019, showcasing the fantastic spectrum of industry and career progression that surrounds Pf Awards.
“ The Pf Award Winners Club reminds us that we’re really good at what we do and it allows us to celebrate”
8
9
Once all of the Pf Award winners had been recognised, Melanie introduced the evening’s inspirational speakers, Yorkshire Rows, by saying: “Tonight is all about success and achievement, something that this evening’s guest speakers know all about. “Yorkshire Rows is a team of four formidable mums from Yorkshire who are the first women to row across the North Sea and also hold a Guinness World Record for rowing across the Atlantic. These four ladies are not professional sportswomen, they are four ordinary working mums who ‘dared to dream’.” Taking to the stage, Frances, Helen and Janette apologised for their fourth member Niki’s absence, then went on to enthral and motivate everyone in the room with the story of their journey – from mums who met at the local rowing club every Saturday morning, to World Record holding, ocean-rowing women who took on a life-changing experience. Janette has a personal connection to the pharmaceutical industry, as she started her career as a medical sales representative, so she was delighted to be at the Pf Award Winners Club helping to celebrate success. Describing their decision to row the Atlantic and the required training as “challenging”, Frances explained how they had to face their fears and discover strengths that they never knew they had. A seemingly innocuous conversation between them at the Annual Boat Club Dinner led to that decision to row the Atlantic. Frances explained: “Rowing was my oasis in an otherwise busy week.” And when the conversation turned to entering the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, Frances added: “I said yes. You have to say yes if an opportunity is offered.” She continued: “There’s an adventure in everybody but you have to choose your own and then be relentlessly dedicated.” Supported by their partners and children, they set about training. Dubbed ‘Four Mums in a Boat’ by the media, it took three years to get in the best shape to complete the challenge safely. “We weren’t the normal face of the race,” explained Helen. “We needed a huge amount of effort to get to the start line. We were working mums, we couldn’t train in the gym every day, so we needed to adapt our training around our family.” This included training in the kitchen whilst cooking dinner, supporting the children with their homework and looking after the dog.
M AG A ZI N E S P EC I A L ED I T I O N | N OV EM B ER 2019 | 17