PHLINK CELEBRATES PLAIN ENGLISH AWARD WIN

Miriam Armstrong, Chief Executive, and Ray Jobling, Chair of the charity receive the award from Lenny Henry at a ceremony in central London.

PharmacyHealthLink (PHLink) the independent, public health charity has just won a Plain English Award for its public information leaflet - Healthy You - Healthy Planet. This prestigious award was received at a gala awards ceremony in London today, attended by the charity.

The prize-winning leaflet is part of an overall campaign that PHLink launched jointly with the Department of Health in 2008 to promote pharmacies’ role in sustainable development. The resources included a background A4 booklet, a set of A5 guidance cards for pharmacy staff and the award-winning public information leaflet.

Support for the campaign was also provided by the Sustainable Development Commission, in line with the UK’s Sustainable Development Strategy, Securing the Future. The goal of the strategy is to enable people to satisfy their basic needs and enjoy a decent quality of life without compromising the quality of life for future generations.

Miriam Armstrong, PHLink’s Chief Executive commented, “With this week’s Copenhagen summit, the emphasis on sustainable development has never been higher. However, many people are still unaware that adopting the principles of healthy living – such as walking or cycling as alternatives to using the car – also support the aims of sustainable development. With many pharmacies situated in the heart of communities, their staff are ideally placed to highlight these issues to customers using the resources provided, and to signpost them to further sources of support.”Ray Jobling, Chair of PHLink added, “ As chair of the charity I’m enormously proud to have its work recognised in this way, as it proves we are meeting one of our key aims, to produce high-quality, independent information available in pharmacies that is easy for the public to understand and act upon!”

All the staff at PHLink receive the award 

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Notes to Editors

This leaflet, ‘Healthy You - Healthy Planet’ was written by Miriam Armstrong and Veronica Wray and is part of an overall campaign on sustainable development.

Hard copies of all the campaign resources are available by contacting Anna on 020 7291 8372 or info@phlink.org.uk and PDFs can be downloaded from the charity’s website : www.phlink.org.uk.

PharmacyHealthLink is a registered charity set-up to improve the health of the public by conducting research, providing training and information, and developing the skills of pharmacists to promote the health of the public and educate them in matters affecting their health. The beneficiaries of the charity are the UK general public and specifically those who use pharmacies or obtain pharmacy advice. PHLink has no commercial interest in the provision of pharmacy services.

Plain English Awards website:

http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/news/plain-english-awards-2009.html

The judges’ assessment of the leaflet was as follows:

PharmacyHealthLink came up with a clear, unfussy design and a handy size for their leaflet. It has clear subheadings, good use of lists, white space and a direct, personal writing style.

For press details please contact:

Veronica Wray - Communications Consultant
Telephone Direct: 020 8568 8546
Mobile: 07710 624454
Email: info@veronicawray.com