Following a series of regional and functional Best of the Best celebrations, where more than 4,000 of our colleagues across the UK and ROI were recognised for their outstanding contribution to our patients, customers, communities and each other, last night in Manchester we celebrated 450 of our very best people.

From Legendary Leaders to Beauty Champions, Community Champions and Support Colleagues, our very best colleagues lit up Manchester last night in a way that only the Best of the Best can.

Bringing their glitz and glamour to the Palace Hotel, winners from all regions and support function came together to celebrate every winner in every Best of the Best category with Elizabeth Fagan, Kevin Birch and leaders from across our stores and support functions.

Kevin Birch said: “It was an amazing celebration for some amazing people who day-in, day-out with support from some incredible colleagues, create wonderful customer experiences.”

The stories of colleagues’ dedication to their customers, young and old, in difficult times or normal Saturdays, touched everyone in the room.

Our divisional store of the year winners are:

• Divisional Store of the ROI: Liffey Valley
• Divisional Store of the Year North: Lancaster
• Divisional Store of the Year London and Airports: London Oxford Street
• Divisional Store of the Year South: Fairford

And the overall Store of the Year award was awarded to Lancaster!

Store Manager of Lancaster, Mandy Hedley, said: “We are immensely proud that the Store of the Year trophy is ours to take back to Lancaster! We have a winning team and some fantastic support that helped to make this happen. And tomorrow, for our customers it will be business as usual.”

Finalists of the prestigious Cross Functional Teams of the Year were the Flood team, team NYX, and the Meningitis B Vaccination service team. Members of these teams worked together to achieve some incredible things for our customers; their stories bought the audience to their feet.

Hard as it was, the Flood team, who in Autumn 2015 helped stores in Cumbria and Yorkshire recover from serious flooding to reopen and deliver care and support when it was most needed were crowned the winners.

And with entertainment from Take that Tribute act, ‘Rule the World’, all of our winners had a night they’ll never forget. Congratulations to all our winners.

Divisional Store of the ROI: Liffey Valley

Divisional Store of the Year North: Lancaster

Divisional Store of the Year London and Airports: London Oxford Street

Divisional Store of the Year South: Fairford