19 November 2021

A biochemistry team from the pathology department at Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust have come top in our #AllTogetherNow Twitter competition with their entertaining video entry.

Our now annual Twitter competition for National Pathology Week (NPW) challenges pathology teams to tweet a creative photo or video that highlights their work and fits in with our NPW theme. For NPW 2021, which ran from 1 to 7 November, we saw many interpretations of our ‘All Together Now’ theme amongst the varied tweet-entries. Many of these highlighted teamwork and collaboration, and the key role of pathology services play in diagnosis and treatment of patients. 

There were also ‘journey of a sample’ videos, interviews with a range of lab staff and even musical entries and a genomic medicine-themed cake! Our judging panel was made up of some of the RCPath public engagement team and the College’s Vice-President for Communication, Professor Sarah Coupland. They scored entries against three criteria; relevance to the ‘All Together Now’ theme, originality and the ability of the post to engage healthcare professionals and wider audiences about pathology and its importance.

The entry receiving the highest score from our judges came from a biochemistry lab team based at the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s pathology department. The TikTok video, created by clinical biochemist, Kate Fenna, showed her team dancing to ‘I like to move it’ by Reel to Reel, alongside their machines and other lab equipment. The eye-catching video was accompanied by a fun fact in their tweet (linked to below): ‘Did you know we test over 2,500 samples every single day? ... but when we're not hard at work - we're dancing like our machines #AllTogetherNow’.
 


Kate was thrilled about winning this year’s competition; she said:

“My inspiration came from the endless hours spent scrolling through the TikTok app during lockdown, and I’m grateful I’ve finally been able to put this time into good use. The team work so hard and I’m so glad they got to enjoy making the video - and are delighted to have won the competition! We really wanted to show everyone that Pathology laboratory teams are fun, creative individuals who can do more than just manage machines… we can dance like them too!” 

Kate Fenna, Clinical Biochemist and ‘creative director’ of the HHFT NPW Biochemistry TikTok Video. 
 

While Kate was the creative genius behind the video entry, she was keen to acknowledge the rest of the team who were involved in it: 
 

  • Kirsty Gordon – Pathology Clinical Director
  • Karen Harrison – Biochemistry Operations Manager
  • Francis Smith – Immunology Operations Manager
  • Eloise Clark – Operational Services Manager
  • Anthony Haynes – Associate Practitioner
  • Ed Kirkpatrick – Biomedical Scientist
  • Mohammed Musse – Associate Practitioner 
  • Angela Samonte – Associate Practitioner 
  • William Chittey – Trainee Biomedical Scientist
  • Sam Hamson – Medical Laboratory Assistant
  • Bijaya Gurung – Biomedical Scientist

Kate and team have won a £100 restaurant voucher; we hope they enjoy it. 

Watch this space for next year’s NPW Twitter competition – don’t forget that NPW 2022 takes place from 20 to 26 June (instead of November), as part of the RCPath’s Diamond Jubilee year of activities and events.

In the meantime, here are a few of the runner-up #AllTogetherNow tweeted entries to enjoy. Thank you to everyone who took part in the competition, and in National Pathology Week 2021.

 

 

 

Author(s)

Penny Fletcher.jpg

Penny Fletcher

  • Public Engagement and Fundraising Manager