A north London nurse is "delighted" to have been recognised in King Charles III's Birthday Honours List.

Lynette Kennedy, who is attached to the Camden Integrated Learning Disability Service (CLDS), has been awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to the community.

The consultant nurse and daughter of a soldier said: “I am delighted to be receiving a British Empire Award (BEM) for the work that I have done and continue to do to enhance the health and wellbeing of people with learning disabilities living in Camden."

Lynette "worked tirelessly" throughout the pandemic to protect people with disabilities who are often at increased risk of respiratory infections.

She worked with several organisations, including Camden Council and GPs, to ensure they had access to the covid vaccinations.

Research by Public Health England suggested that people with learning difficulties were at least six times from likely to die from Covid 19.

Ham & High: Lynette Kennedy worked tirelessly during the pandemic to help people with learning disabilitiesLynette Kennedy worked tirelessly during the pandemic to help people with learning disabilities (Image: CLDS)

She used her experience as a peer vaccinator to pull together a vaccination team made up of learning disability nurses and psychiatrists from CLDS to increase capacity, and worked hard to overcome hesitancy and reluctance around vaccine take-up.

She also worked with her colleagues in CLDS to ensure issues such as a phobia of needles were addressed so people could be supported to understand the reason they needed a vaccine and held face-to-face meetings with teams to dismiss misinformation around the vaccines. 

Lynette added: "I am passionate about partnership working between health and social care agencies, both statutory and non-statutory organisations, to address the health inequalities that people with learning disabilities often experience. 

"I believe that partnership working  is the only way to highlight the importance of appropriate commissioned provision and how important reasonable adjustments are in our vision for equity of health outcomes and to ensure people’s mental, emotional and physical health needs are met.”

Alice Langley, Camden division managing director at North London Mental Health Partnership, which runs CLDS, said: "Lynette has committed her life to public service".

She added: “I am extremely impressed and inspired by Lynette’s achievements. She has selflessly worked above and beyond to help others.”