Percy Hedley Foundation

Percy Hedley Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Dr. Mary Gibson

What is the award?

The Percy Hedley Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Dr. Mary Gibson for outstanding and sustained contribution to the field of childhood disability.

Dr. Mary Gibson with Dr. Tony Best, CEO who presented the award for outstanding and sustained achievements.

Why was the award given to her?

Dr. Gibson has recently retired from her post of medical director at Percy Hedley School and neuro-developmental consultant paediatrician at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, after 23 years of helping disabled children and their families.

At a ceremony at the school, Mary was presented with the award by Dr. Tony Best, Chief Executive, who said "She has provided exceptional support to hundreds of children and families at the school, always concerned over their questions, finding time to answer their queries, intensively interested in the children and their development. Her insights into cerebral palsy are outstanding and result in advice and ideas that families find really helpful."

Dr. Gibson is also an authority on childhood disability and cerebral palsy and her work has affected the field far wider than just Percy Hedley. She has carried out research and lectured extensively throughout the North East, training doctors and encouraging the development of interest in cerebral palsy. Dr. Best highlighted her involvement in the development of innovative practice, and tireless work for this to remain a priority for the health agenda. He said "It is partly through her presence that the North East has such as strong record of excellence in research and practice in cerebral palsy and other childhood disabilities."

Mary is only the second medical advisor of The Percy Hedley Foundation which was set up in 1950, partly through the encouragement of Sir James Spence, who founded the Institute of Child Health in Newcastle. The Foundation has maintained strong links with the medical field. Medical professionals, and particularly therapists, continue to be employed by the Foundation and work alongside educators to provide a very specialised education for children based on a truly multi-disciplinary model.

Dr. Best added "we are an organisation dedicated to providing excellent and innovative education drawing on emerging research and best practice. This means working with medical and educational researchers to try out new ideas and implement innovative practice. One example is the use of Conductive Education as a basis for our work with children who have cerebral palsy. This philosophy underpins our work and has resulted in the high value we place on the contribution of medical practitioners, such as Dr. Gibson".

Mary Gibson enjoys being shown her book of thanks by a Percy Hedley School student.

Mary was also given a book created by the pupils that contained messages of thanks and good wishes from each child. Mary responded by saying she had found her work at Percy Hedley immensely interesting and was delighted to be associated with such wonderful children and their families. She had enjoyed working as part of strong staff teams and, while looking forward to retirement, hoped to continue to contribute to work with children and families in a number of ways.

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