2017 Winner
Michelle Quested
An inspirational nurse who returned to the wards despite being paralysed from the waist down has been honoured with a Pride of Birmingham Award.
Michelle Quested was left wheelchair-bound following a car accident in 2010, and spent five months in hospital.
But she never gave up on her dream of returning to the job she loves, as a neonatal cardiac nurse at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, tending premature babies and newborns with serious health problems.
She said: “I was desperate to get back to work. I knew that from day one despite the fact I’d become a wheelchair user. It wasn’t going to stop me from doing what I love.”
Within a year of her accident, she was back at work in an administrative role, and she finally achieved her dream of returning to the wards in April 2016, after being given a specially-adapted electric wheelchair that means she can handle babies and manoeuvre around bedside equipment.
Pride of Birmingham, in partnership with TSB, honours unsung heroes of all ages who do extraordinary things to help others.
The judges said: “Michelle is an absolute inspiration. She has been through so much, but she always puts other people first.”
Michelle received her Award at a star-studded dinner hosted by TV presenter and campaigner Katie Piper, and attended by some of the region’s biggest stars.
Michelle added: “I’m a nurse through and through, it’s in my soul. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”