Four exceptional c2c staff have been officially recognized at the global National Express Values Awards, which were held recently at London’s Bloomsbury Ballroom.
Over 140 people, working in many different locations across the UK, Germany, Bahrain, Spain, Morocco, North Africa and North America came together to celebrate both individual and team success at the London finals of the awards.
Group Chief Executive, Dean Finch presented the Chief Executive’s Award to ticket office staff member Donna Ilet-Vidhi, who won for her cool, calm and considerate handling of a fatal incident. While supporting a disabled customer she became aware that a high-speed train passing through her station had struck and killed a person. She kept people away from the incident and calmly evacuated the whole station. Donna’s respectful and considerate actions helped to minimize the distress to both customers and colleagues.
Donna said of her win, “I couldn’t believe it when it was announced that I had won the Chief Executive’s Award and to be honest I was just happy to have been nominated by my fellow colleagues. The incident at the station was very sad and I’m just glad that my training kicked in and I was able to deal with it in a calm and professional manner.”
During the evening Dean Finch awarded four Chief Executive’s Special Commendations, one of which was to Fenchurch Street’s Responsible Person, Chris Marson. Chris was recognized for the life-saving support he offered to a cyclist who had been knocked off her bike. Having recently undergone first aid training at work he was able to identify that the cyclist was being choked by her own blood loss. He moved her into a safe recovery position enabling her to start breathing again. His actions, which were undertaken in company uniform, brought praise from both customers and the local media.
In the Safety category, Jackie Duckworth and Titi Adeyemo were presented with a Highly Commended award for their actions during a recent customer incident. They identified and supported a man at a c2c station who was in a suicidal state. After stopping all trains they supported him until the police arrived. Their prompt actions clearly prevented a tragic event from taking place.
Julian Drury, c2c managing director, said, "it’s great to see Donna, Chris, Jackie and Titi being officially recognised by public transport professionals across the world. I was thrilled they did so well and we at c2c are massively proud of them all.”
