Sussex charity chief executive honoured by Royal College
The chief executive of a Haywards Heath charity has accepted an honourary fellowship from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG).
Jane Plumb, the chief executive of Group B Strep Support, was recognised for her work to stop Group B strep infection in babies.
Jane was given her honour by the president of the
RCOG, Dr Edward Morris, at the organisation’s London headquarters.
Jane’s involvement in Group B strep prevention came after the loss of her second child, Theo, to the infection in 1996.
She co-founded Group B Strep Support with her husband, Robert, and has tirelessly turned her own personal tragedy into a campaign to stop babies’ developing Group B strep infection.
Jane said: “I’m delighted and quite overwhelmed to have been given this rare honorary fellowship by the college. It recognises all the hard work that I and so many others have done to improve awareness and prevention of Group B strep infection in babies in the UK.”
Honorary fellowships are the highest award of the RCOG and are given following a rigorous screening exercise to those who demonstrate the highest level of support for the development of women’s healthcare services. They are very exclusive, with only around five to ten awarded each year.
Jane was nominated for the award by professor Philip Steer, chairman of the charity’s Medical Advisory Panel and emeritus professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Imperial College London, and Dr Alison Wright, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at The Royal Free Hospital and immediate past vice-president of the RCOG.
Dr Morris, said: “It is an honour to be able to award Jane Plumb MBE with an Honorary Fellowship for the RCOG, in recognition of her tremendous contribution in working towards the eradication of Group B strep (GBS), and founding Group B Strep Support. Jane is responsible for campaigns that have educated and raised awareness of GBS among women, their families and healthcare professionals, while working tirelessly to influence change at policy level.”