27 Mar 2024 Community

The Kirkwood Spotlight: Sonia Tyndall

The Kirkwood over the years has developed new ways to care for people. It has developed its staff and given its workforce the opportunity to express itself and bring new ideas and schemes to the table. One of our brilliant staff members is Sonia Tyndall, a hardworking and dedicated person who cares about the job she is doing and the difference she is making to patients' lives.

Sonia is our Matron in Specialist Palliative Care Services, and she has lived locally all her life in Almondbury. She was used to passing The Kirkwood’s Dalton site every day from being a young age. After deciding she would like to be a nurse at school age Sonia said she would one day work for The Kirkwood, saying it would be a dream to work for the organisation.

On why she’s proud to work for The Kirkwood she said: “Living so close to The Kirkwood’s Dalton site I understood what The Kirkwood was from a young age, although I didn’t necessarily understand all the intricacies of what the charity stood for, I did know it was a special place that helped people.

“I had personal experience as a child of a loved one being in hospital and the nurses were so kind and looked after me and so it just gave me that feeling that being a nurse is what I wanted to be when I grew up, but also it was the sort of person I wanted to be. A kind person that cares for people to the best of my abilities.

“Now working for the charity I understand, it is more than just a familiar building in Dalton but a movement of likeminded people committed to supporting each person in Kirklees that is living with a life limiting illness. It's the culture of everybody who works for The Kirkwood, we give all we can to provide the best possible care to people and we strive to achieve the highest standards.”

Sonia has been on her own nursing journey and that really got started after having a family of her own. She then eventually got her dream job with The Kirkwood and joined our movement and family and has become an important part of that family ever since.

On that journey, she commented: “I had my children first, so when my youngest started school, that's when I went to university. I trained at Bradford University and did an advanced diploma in adult nursing. My first job was on the Oncology ward at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

“I really enjoyed my time there we provided chemotherapy treatments, provided palliative care and supported people at the end of life. It was the palliative care side of the role that I was more drawn to. I wanted to be able to support people to live well at the end of their lives and to be able to help families on that journey with their loved one.

“I found it heartening that we could still give quality care and support people at the end of their lives. I started to think about moving towards palliative care as a career and so that is when I looked at working for The Kirkwood.

“I did a palliative care course at Bradford University and one of the palliative care nurse specialists within the hospital team was my mentor. It was her that advised me that if palliative care was the route that I wanted to go into that I needed to come and spend some time on the hospice In-Patient Unit.

“A job became available with The Kirkwood as a senior staff nurse. So, I applied, and I came to work for the charity thinking I'll learn more of palliative care nursing from the best and then decide where next to take my career.

“However, The Kirkwood is ever evolving and developing its services to double the number of people that we reach. And with all the opportunities that working as a nurse for The Kirkwood brings, I will have been here 15 years in April.”

“Over the years with The Kirkwood my roles have included Senior Staff Nurse, Practice Development nurse that included a secondment to the University as a Practitioner/Lecturer in End of Life Care, Practice Development Sister and to my current role as Matron.

“In the Matron role I take responsibility for the In-Patient Unit and community specialist nursing teams supporting continuity of patient care and the delivery of the highest standards of personalised care. As a hospice movement we are always looking for opportunities to develop the services we offer and to progress patient quality care standards.”

Sonia doesn’t think she’ll be leaving The Kirkwood family any time soon as she continues to thrive in her role supporting and empowering teams to lead and develop services and promote a multi professional approach with shared care.

Sonia encourages anyone who wants to really make that difference to others in a dynamic movement that is always looking for ways to improve. A movement that really does listen to the views of those involved in delivering and receiving that care to come join the movement and become part of The Kirkwood family.

“It is a privilege to be in the position of The Kirkwood Matron and I feel very proud of the work we do, because it's local it means even more to me personally.

“I have had family members that have been cared for by The Kirkwood and friends that have been cared for by us too. That makes me feel incredibly proud when you know that the people you care about are getting first class care from excellent colleagues that you work with.”

We continue to care for hundreds of people across the Kirklees community with a life limiting illness. We can only do this with people’s very generous donations towards The Kirkwood, your donations make a huge difference with every penny going back into patient care. If you would like to make a donation click the link HERE and help us to support life.