Somerset NHS employee takes home Scope Purple Pioneer Award

Zahari Brimacombe, a trainee clinical coder, attended the "prestigious" Scope Disability Equality Awards, which shine a spotlight on equality champions, recognising and celebrating the achievements of people who campaign for disability equality, a change in attitudes, and bring about social change.

Zahari, who currently works for Somerset NHS Foundation Trust at Musgrove Park Hospital, began their career at the trust in 2017 as a medical secretary in its mental health services, as well as a role in the trust’s temporary staffing team.

The awards nomination said: "Zahari champions the cause of disabled people in Somerset” and their achievements include “helping to establish a reasonable adjustments fund for disabled colleagues at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust and contributing to the co-production of Somerset’s autism services”.

It also said: “As inclusion adviser to Girlguiding Somerset, Zahari enables autistic and neurodivergent girls and disabled adult volunteers to attend camps and weekly meetings.”

Zahari also plays and promotes wheelchair tennis, and is a key member of Open Table Taunton, an LGBTQ+ inclusive church meeting accessible to disabled people.

Zahari said: “I was nominated by somebody in girl guiding when they realised how much I was doing for it, as well as a charity of my own that I was running.

“Alongside this I was also making a strong case to trust management for various things related to equality through my role as the trust’s Neurodiversity Network co-chair.

“My nominator (I don’t know who they are!) said they saw how hard I was working to further the inclusion of neurodivergent people and disabled people primarily, as well as the inclusion of the above people who are also of colour and/or LGBTQ+.”

This all came about because the nominator saw adverts from Scope on social media last year for their awards, saw the category for Purple Pioneer, that Zahari fitted into, and decided to nominate them for it.

Zahari added: “The first I knew about it was when I got an email from Scope in January this year saying I had been nominated and shortlisted for an award.

“I thought the ceremony would be full of people like me from the general public, but as it got closer and all the shortlisted people were announced, I soon realised that I’d be rubbing shoulders with my Paralympic heroes and people from the stage.

“Colleagues from other NHS trusts were there too, along with people representing Apple and Lego… oh my goodness the place was heaving full of people who were pretty much my idols, and I was a bit overwhelmed when I arrived.

“To be fair to the event organisers, they had thought of everything for accessibility, such as the fact that most people would arrive feeling quite overwhelmed, so they had a dedicated arrivals team telling us where to go.

“Also, when we got in the lift, we weren’t sure what floor to go to, they had that covered too as they had a large notice saying, ‘push this button first’, and all the other buttons were clearly marked for us too – it was a nice little touch. They’d thought of every level of accessibility, which really impressed me.”

Whilst Zahari found themselves “starstruck” at the ceremony, surrounded by their "heroes" their achievement was celebrated on an equal scale to all the other attendees.

Zahari said: “I met so many amazing people at the event, including Kadeena Cox, the Paralympic cyclist, Ellie Simmonds, the TV personality, Adam Pearson from the Freak Show, Mollie from the Traitors, and so other many people who are influential… all alongside little old me!

“My award was presented by Adam Pearson, and I have so much respect for him as he has quite a significant facial disfigurement – he’s such a great guy and so humble.

“Two actors from Ralph & Katie, the ITV drama with the Down’s Syndrome actors, were also there – they won a few awards, and I was crying at how brilliant they were and how genuinely happy they were to win.

“I honestly didn’t know all those people would be there, as I didn’t want to look into it much beforehand otherwise, I thought I would change my mind about going.

Zahari's and their partner's shocked reactions after hearing Zahari won the Scope Purple Pioneer award. (Image: Paul Hopkins) “I’m still in a bit of shock that I’ve won and there’s a great photo (right) taken when they announced my name, and I’m just visibly absolutely in total shock that they even said my name!

“In fact, my partner was looking at me saying ‘come on, we’ve got to go, we’ve got to move’, and I was just absolutely frozen. It was simply disbelief, and I am so glad I have those memories and the actual award.

“My award wasn’t until the very end so watching all those amazing people go up and collect theirs made me smile so much. I didn’t really have any butterflies or anything as I’d already resigned myself to the fact that I obviously wasn’t going to win. I almost needed them to repeat my name to say: ‘yes, it was you!’”