Award for effort

By Lachlan Ellis

A local pharmacist has won a state-wide award for her work at a community pharmacy, after another busy year for medical professionals.

Thirty one-year-old Lauren Haworth is Pharmacist in Charge at TerryWhite Chemmart Maddingley, and was awarded with the ‘Early Career Pharmacist of the Year’ award at the 2022 Victorian Pharmacist Awards.

Ms Haworth said it was a shock and an honour to receive the award on Thursday 8 December, after what has been a very stressful time for pharmacists.

“I was very surprised to receive the phone call that I had won. I’m really proud that a community pharmacy was recognised, because often the Early Career Pharmacist of the Year goes to someone who works in hospital or research. If was very nice after the three years of hell that many of us have had, that a community pharmacist was recognised,” she told the Moorabool News.

“It’s nice to be recognised for all the extra blood, sweat, and tears. And I’m really proud that a young female pharmacy owner from essentially the country has been recognised, out of all the young pharmacists in Victoria…it doesn’t happen very often.”

TerryWhite Chemmart Maddingley opened just two days before the first positive COVID cases in Australia in January 2020 – Ms Haworth says staff “haven’t really ever known a pre-COVID existence”.

“It was very hard to balance being a young pharmacist, running my own pharmacy for the first time, but also in a new community where we didn’t necessarily know what the community wanted and needed at first,” she said.

“It’s been a tough time, but I really value the relationships I have with my patients, and the fact they know they can come here at any time to get the help they need. Pharmacists are the most accessible health professionals…that people know they can wander in at any time and get a friendly pharmacist is really important to me.”