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Last Updated on 30/09/2026 by Sarah Sarsby
Behind lasting progress in healthcare and assistive technology are people who dedicate their careers to making a difference. The BHTA is delighted to celebrate seven such individuals shortlisted for the Lifetime Service Award at the British Healthcare Trades Industry Awards 2026.
The award honours individuals whose dedication over many years has made a lasting and meaningful contribution to the sector. It recognises the expertise, leadership, and care that help improve lives, alongside the generosity of those who share their knowledge and support others to succeed.
This year’s nominees represent decades of achievement across mobility, rehabilitation engineering, first aid, community equipment, and stoma care. Their careers reflect both significant professional accomplishments and the personal qualities that have earned the respect of colleagues, customers, and partners.
Across a 35-year career, Hugh Sims-Hilditch, Founder and Chairman of Urathon, has focused on making healthcare equipment more reliable, accessible, and affordable.
In the 1990s, he worked with Chinese manufacturers to develop polyurethane flat-free wheelchair tyres, helping reduce punctures that could leave users stranded and place additional demands on repair services.
Hugh developed Urathon into a one-stop shop for NHS wheelchair services and contracted repair networks. With its own production facilities and parts for more than 400 wheelchair models, the company supplies components ranging from castors and tyres to headrests and posture belts. Direct bulk importing helps keep replacement parts affordable, while traceability supports clinical safety audits.
Combining manufacturing in China with strong UK operations, Hugh has brought together design, production, and logistics to support leading industry brands and develop products including aluminium shower commode ranges.
During the pandemic, Urathon supplied more than 200 million face masks to the NHS under Hugh’s direction. His commitment extended to local communities, with thousands of masks donated to nursing and residential homes in Wiltshire.
After more than three decades working alongside Hugh, Urathon’s Head of Sales Ian Batchelor describes his work ethic and enthusiasm as “truly inspiring”, reflecting a drive to improve products and services that continues today.
For more than 30 years, Alan Russell has combined exceptional technical ability with empathy and a commitment to helping people live independently. Beginning his career at Remploy Healthcare in 1995, he progressed through engineering, quality, and leadership roles before joining RHealthcare in 2012.
As a rehabilitation engineer, Alan understands that every powerchair, wheelchair, and rollator is essential to someone’s independence and wellbeing. He brings meticulous care to repairs, adaptations, and quality inspections, working closely with clinicians and dealers to ensure equipment meets individual needs.
Colleagues often say there is “nothing Alan cannot fix”, but his contribution extends beyond his own expertise. Through mentoring, training materials, and support for apprentices and colleagues, he generously shares his knowledge and helps raise engineering standards across the business.
Alan’s own experience of visual impairment informs his understanding of the people he supports. Leading with kindness and humour, he brings the same care to his colleagues that he brings to his engineering.
Across 18 years at Medequip, David Griffiths championed a clear purpose: helping people remain independent in their own homes. Joining as Operations Director in 2008 before becoming Managing Director, he oversaw turnover growth from £38 million to £380 million and an increase in colleagues from 200 to more than 1,800 before retiring in July 2026.
During his tenure, Medequip’s community equipment contracts increased from 20 to 42, with Medequip Connect also holding 40 technology-enabled care contracts by his retirement. This expansion was accompanied by a sustained focus on service quality, regulatory compliance, and innovation.
Working closely with local authorities, NHS organisations, commissioners, clinicians, and voluntary sector partners, David championed integrated, person-centred services that respond to increasingly complex needs. He strengthened opportunities for equipment users to shape services and supported shared learning through ‘Share the Journey’. Medequip’s Wellbeing Committee, established during his leadership, won Team of the Year at the British Healthcare Trades Industry Awards 2025.
Colleagues describe an approachable leader who makes people feel heard, alongside a “positively superhuman work ethic”. Yet David still found time to pass his Art O level as a mature student in 2024 and regularly travel to the North East to watch his beloved Newcastle United. His achievements reflect both his determination and the personal commitment he brings to those around him.
Across more than 40 years in the sector, Alastair Gibbs has brought together the rigour of engineering compliance and deeply empathetic, person-centred care. His work reflects an understanding that safe, carefully specified equipment can transform someone’s independence and quality of life.
From frontline beginnings, he progressed through technical, operational, and commercial roles to become Managing Director of TPG DisableAids. Under his leadership, the Hereford business has grown from a local equipment supplier into a multidisciplinary mobility and accessibility provider, working with housing associations, local authorities, and NHS trusts across Wales and the West Midlands. Its work spans individual stairlift installations, public Changing Places facilities, and complex hoist systems.
A champion of the BHTA Code of Practice, Alastair has made ethical service, safety, and professional training central to the business. He brings the same meticulous care to major contracts and individual customers.
Over decades, he has also mentored engineers, sales supervisors, and customer service colleagues, encouraging them to recognise the person behind every installation and the lasting difference their work can make.
For more than 20 years, Martin Sampson has helped thousands of customers maintain their freedom and confidence through the mobility products and services he has championed. His belief that mobility equipment can change lives has shaped both his leadership and the culture of the organisations he leads.
Joining Monarch Mobility as Sales Director in 2017, Martin later took ownership of the business and now leads Monarch Mobility Holdings as Chief Executive Officer. He spearheaded the development of its lightweight scooter range, recognising how portability and practicality could help people travel more easily. His vision has helped establish Monarch Mobility as a leader in lightweight mobility solutions, enabling thousands of customers to enjoy greater independence.
Martin has also guided international expansion, including the launch of Monarch Mobility USA in March 2026, while maintaining a strong commitment to aftercare and lasting customer support.
Humility and approachability underpin his leadership. Through mentoring colleagues and creating opportunities for progression, he has encouraged a culture of teamwork and trust, keeping the everyday difference mobility equipment makes to people’s lives at the heart of the business.
Andrew Pear’s four decades in healthcare reflect entrepreneurial ambition, practical leadership, and a strong sense of responsibility towards others. Beginning at Smith & Nephew in the early 1980s, he founded Reliance Medical in 2006 and built it into a multimillion-pound international business, employing more than 200 people across the UK, China, Hungary, Australia, and New Zealand.
A former BHTA Chair, Andrew has championed BSI first aid standards. Under his leadership, Reliance supplied 20,000 defibrillators to UK schools in 2023, an industry record, and adapted its operations during the pandemic to manufacture PPE for the NHS.
In the company’s early days, Andrew unloaded containers and picked orders in the early hours to maintain customer service. His gratitude towards colleagues who rallied after a devastating warehouse fire remains deeply felt, reflecting the importance he places on the people around him.
That commitment extends to apprenticeships, staff wellbeing support, and his role as Chair of Ruby’s Fund. As Deputy Lieutenant of Cheshire, Andrew also contributes to civic life alongside his longstanding service to the sector.
Peter Salt has devoted 53 years to healthcare, continuing a family tradition as a tenth-generation member of the Salt family. Joining Salts Healthcare in 1973, he spent his first year working across every department before training as an orthotist and later progressing into leadership.
Now Group Chairman, Peter has helped guide Salts Healthcare from a small UK manufacturer into an international healthcare company with annual revenues exceeding £130 million, while preserving the family values on which the business was built.
His commitment to improving patient care includes championing Confidence BE stoma bags, which challenged conventional product design and gave people greater choice, helping them feel more accepting of their stoma and more confident in everyday life. He has also supported the development of the Medilink dispensing service and the Salts Academy’s training facilities for healthcare professionals.
His influence extends across the sector. As Chairman of the BHTA Dispensing Appliance Contractors Committee from 1994 to 2005, he helped defend and reform Part IX of the Drug Tariff, supporting patient access to specialist dispensing services. He also helped bring patients, clinicians, and industry together through the Patients, Industry and Professionals Forum.
A calm, thoughtful leader, Peter brings humility, integrity, kindness, and quiet determination to his work. Throughout his career, improving patient care has remained central to his contribution.
The British Healthcare Trades Industry Awards 2026 will take place at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery on 3 December 2026, from 6.30pm to midnight, celebrating innovation, impact, and excellence across healthcare and assistive technology.
Join colleagues for a drinks reception, three-course dinner, and awards ceremony, followed by music and dancing. It is an opportunity to reconnect, applaud our finalists, and discover this year’s winners.
View the shortlists for every award, and find out more about the British Healthcare Trades Industry Awards 2026 and buy your tickets.