Crafts Council

Created by women working at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust with the support of the Crafts Council, this banner celebrates women in healthcare. Stitched into the River Thames are the names of well-known women in healthcare, including Mary Seacole, Florence Nightingale, Edith Cavell and more contemporary women, such as Dr Kate Granger MBE, whose #hellomynameis campaign has improved communication between staff and patients across the NHS. The group also acknowledge the Windrush Nurses and Midwives and women directly involved in Guy’s and St Thomas’, like the Chief Nurse, Dame Eileen Sills. While they worked, the group shared stories of their work, lives and individual women who inspired them; their names are stitched on the flowers at the bottom of the banner. The word ‘respect’ is included to represent the group’s demand that women in healthcare be recognised and respected.

“Angela is very encouraging and a good teacher. It has inspired my creativity and enabled us to create something meaningful.”
Workshop participant

The Crafts Council is a charity that advances craft in the UK by inspiring new audiences and championing new makers and new making.

Angela Maddock is a textiles artist specialising in collaborative projects, often working alongside people who have no previous textiles experience. She is maker-in-residence at the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care at King’s College, London, Honorary Research Fellow at Swansea College of Art and a PhD by practice researcher at the School of Design at the Royal College of Art.