Care worker whose husband has to travel for cancer treatment wins new car

A Peterborough care worker whose husband is having to travel for cancer treatment can now take him to his hospital appointments after winning a new car.

Stacey Phillips who works as a care assistant at PJ Care Eagle Wood Neurological Care Centre has won a new Fiat 500 Dolce Vita Hybrid after she entered a raffle run by her employer, PJ Care and says winning the car has taken all the “worry away” after her previous car was on “the blink”.

Her husband Michael was diagnosed with a form of skin cancer two years ago. After a period of remission, he found that cancer had spread to his lymph nodes last year. He had just finished a programme of radiotherapy when she started her new career as a care assistant in December.

Ms Phillips said: “His treatment was at Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridgeshire. It’s an hour each way and I wasn’t sure how much longer my car would be able to do the trip.”

Mr and Mrs Phillips have to make the journey to Cambridge every six weeks for check-ups.

“I am so grateful to have won," says Ms Phillips. "My car was on the blink and I was really worried about how I was going to get my husband to his appointments. It’s taken all that worry away.”

It’s the second year in a row that PJ Care, which runs Eagle Wood Neurological Care Centre, has given staff the chance to win a new car.

Ms Phillips says: “When they read my name out, everyone came running over to me to say, ‘you’ve won!’

“When I went home and told my family, they didn’t believe me!”

The centre cares for adults with progressive neurological conditions – such as young onset dementia and Parkinson’s disease and acquired brain injuries.

PJ Care chairman, Neil Russell said: “We’re delighted the car will make such a difference to Stacey and her family.

“We ran the car raffle last year as a reward for staff facing the challenges of the Covid pandemic. We felt it was important to continue to recognise the efforts of our team, so we decided to run it again.

“If it encourages just two members of staff to stay and develop their careers with us, it will have been a great investment as recruiting and training new staff is very expensive, as is bringing in agency staff.

“But for Stacey, we know it’s invaluable and that makes us very happy.”

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