Top athlete entertains dinner guests at Wales Awards

Following welcome drinks in the Caernarfon Suite at the Celtic Manor Resort Hotel, a stone's throw from the ICC Wales conference and exhibition venue, IHEEM Wales Branch Chair, John Prendergast, who is Senior Decontamination Engineer at NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership — Specialist Estate Services, welcomed guests, and said he hoped all had enjoyed a productive and informative first day at the conference and exhibition. Announcing that he would be the night's Master of Ceremonies, he recalled some of the — in many cases — considerably smaller-scale past Welsh Branch events, and said that it had been a Branch ambition over the past 2-3 years to hold a conference and exhibition at the ICC. He thanked IHEEM's Head Office team, the organising committee, the Welsh Branch members involved, and staff at NHS Wales Shared Services, for making this a reality, and several Branch members for presenting at and chairing a number of this year's conferences sessions.

John Prendergast explained that in mid-summer 2023, the organisers of this year's event had begun visiting potential venues, and had been highly impressed with both the ICC and the neighbouring Celtic Manor Resort Hotel. One of those involved had been Graham Stanton IEng, FIHEEM, AE(D), a Wales Branch and IHEEM stalwart who spent over 40 years in the Welsh Health Service, in particular at NHS Wales Shared Services, working in the sterilising and decontamination arena for the last 33 years until his retirement.

During that time, Graham Stanton had represented the Welsh Health Service in the formation of national guidance, both for Wales and England's Department of Health, and been instrumental in setting up and chairing active decontamination groups in both Sterile Services and Endoscopy. An Authorised Person (Sterilisers) from 1995, who in July 2008 became an Authorising Engineer (Decontamination), he chaired the IHEEM AE(D) Registration Board after stepping down as Chair of the IHEEM Decontamination Technology Platform, and represented IHEEM on the Professional Bodies Group (DPECF) bodies and Wales branch of IHEEM.