She is an absolute champion to Aged Care and is totally committed to creating the best possible environment for both residents and staff alike. She always finds the positives and never discriminates. She always strives for the best possible outcome in anything she undertakes, and always has time to listen. She has never been afraid of admitting she was wrong, but if she was wrong or didn’t know something, she would find out and share her knowledge with all her colleagues. She has the thirst and capacity to know all she could about her work and was always doing some type of course to further her knowledge to benefit our workplace and most importantly our residents. She has been an absolute inspiration to me. Apart from being a wife and mother, she has managed to gain her Batchelor of Nursing, Graduate Certificate in Aged Care services, Graduate Diploma in Aged Care Management, ACO-Rural Ambulance Victoria and is months away from completing her Graduate Diploma in Dementia Services and her Masters of Health Science.

She encouraged me to have a go at things I never had the confidence to try on my own. She has taught me to stand up for what I believe in and to give things ‘a go.’ The world would be a much better place if there were a few more ‘Mandy’s’ about and there would certainly be a lot of happier work places. In my opinion she is the ultimate ‘boss’ – she isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty, she won’t ask anything of anyone that she isn’t prepared to do herself, she is full of encouragement and praise, ‘discrimination’ is not part of her vocabulary, nor is ‘can’t.’ She always treats people with dignity and respect and will fight vigorously for the Aged and their rights and what is right. Over the years she has ‘stuck her neck out’ and fighting vigorously, with the support of staff and the community as a whole, our beds were saved and up until recent events our facility has always been full with a healthy waiting list. Mandy was removed from the Hostel to work in another department because she had taken the initiative and stood up for our community, as it was originally the community who donated and raised funds to build the desperately needed Aged Care facility.

Without her vision, leadership, passion and her guts and determination to stand up for what she believed in, our community may not have kept this much needed Home for our aging community.