Celebrating Black History Month

As part of #BlackHistoryMonth, we will be speaking to our colleagues to learn more about their experiences of being black in the NHS. 

We'll be sharing a range of stories throughout the month, with the first being from Practice Education Matron, Tonia Anderson-Mills, who told us about the importance of representation.

Tonia said: "Representation matters, we often hear that now. I wasn't lucky enough to be afforded it as a small black girl. Growing up there were no faces that looked like mine. I was 14 when I had my first black teacher and I could not contain my smile.

"When I began my career in 2009 as a junior nurse, I was acutely aware that there were very little black and brown faces in the organisation and no black senior leaders. I used to look at the senior nurses in awe, admiring their dark blue uniforms and longing for the day when it would be my time. When I would be the representation, allowing black girls who came after me to have what I didn’t have.

"A student told me recently they wanted to be “just like me”, such a simple sentence but when uttered by a black girl it carries so much weight, she sees herself within me. When I told my husband what the student had said, I cried. Representation matters.

"Being a Matron, I am acutely aware that there is power in my blackness, in the representation that I am able to give to my colleagues, my peers, my patients and little girls staring back at me. Proudly displaying my blackness for all to see. Loud, Black and Proud, my friends would describe me."