Pharmacy department takes hospitals title

The Pharmacy team fought off tough competition from colleagues to claim the 2013 title for Plymouth NHS Hospitals Trust's Staff Cup Challenge with an impressive average running time of 1 hour 41 minutes and 9 seconds!

From each team that entered the Plymouth Half Marathon, held on Sunday 28 April, the five fastest times were submitted to give the overall fastest group time, earning the team the right to lift the coveted Challenge Cup.

Accepting the trophy on behalf of the team, Pasquale G D'Alessio said: “Although I have run a couple of races before this, the fact that I was running as part of a team challenge for our department heightened the exhilaration and anticipation, it made it more of a challenge and personal.

“I was amazed to find that our team of runners were as passionate about the challenge as I was. We joined forces for a couple of training sessions before the actual event and it all paid off because together we achieved this fantastic result! We were all elated and it’s a real boost for the pharmacy department.”

Awarded the Challenge Cup by Ann James, Chief Executive and Simon Mynes, Director of Pharmacy, the top five runners from the team were Karl Ackers, Pasquale D’Alessio, John Hughes, Simon McClaod and Alex McPhail.

The challenge is open to all staff groups including nurses, junior doctors, consultant, naval personnel and support staff.

Marking the success of his staff, Simon Mynes, Director of Pharmacy said: “I am very proud that the team from pharmacy have been successful in winning the challenge cup trophy this year. This success is down to the teamwork of a range of members of the department, not just during the race but in their practice and preparation sessions as well.

“All the team members showed a real commitment in preparing for this challenge and it has helped build team working and morale within the department. I know the team are looking forward to defending the cup in 2014.”

This year’s teams included Pharmacy, Orthopaedics, Anaesthetics, Finance and Physiotherapy and previous winning teams include Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (2009), Anaesthetics (2010) and Physiotherapy (2011).