The 61st Florence Nightingale Commemoration Service will be held at Westminster Abbey on Tuesday 12 May 2026. We are delighted to announce the lamp carrier and escorts for this year’s Service.
Lamp Carrier – Richard Desir
Richard is a Nursing Officer within the Office of the Chief Nursing Officer for Wales, with national responsibility for People’s Experience, Inclusion Health and NHS Safeguarding. He leads national programmes that strengthen how people’s voices, lived experience and equity shape policy, assurance and service improvement across NHS Wales. Richard’s work focuses on embedding dignity, compassion and inclusion into everyday care, with a particular emphasis on reducing inequalities and improving outcomes for marginalised communities.
“It is a real honour to be asked to carry the lamp on behalf of my cohort. The Florence Nightingale Foundation’s Global Scholarship has been a truly transformative experience — connecting leaders across the world and turning shared learning into real impact for patients and communities. I’m deeply proud and genuinely excited”
Lamp Escort – Katharine Caddick
Katharine Caddick is a Consultant Hepatology Nurse at North Bristol NHS Trust, providing strategic leadership to improve outcomes for people with advanced liver disease and hepatocellular cancer. With 30 years’ experience, she leads service innovation, focusing on inequity and invisibility in liver disease while improving early detection and coordinated care.
A Florence Nightingale Foundation Scholar, she champions clear, data-driven nursing leadership and the visibility of nursing in system-wide change. She contributes to national standards and guidance, shaping the future of liver care across the UK.
“I am delighted to be a lamp escort, walking with the light. With quiet bravery, I will hold my post – leading change, ensuring kinder, fairer, more equitable care for my patients, upholding excellence in nursing, and refusing to leave it to chance.”
Lamp Escort – Debbie Cubitt
Debbie Cubitt is a Senior Clinical Manager at NHS England, East of England (EOE), and the Regional Preceptorship Lead. She has played a central role in the successful regional implementation of the National Preceptorship Interim Quality Mark (IQM), working with national NHS England retention leads and regional preceptorship leads to embed consistent, high‑quality preceptorship to support preceptees to transition smoothly and effectively into employment. Debbie has also led the development of a regional pre‑preceptorship initiative, informed by findings from the Florence Nightingale Foundation Preceptorship Pulse Check (FNF, 2025), aimed at supporting learners during their pre‑registration programmes. She continues to lead this work in partnership with regional preceptorship leads, NHS England EOE multi‑professional colleagues, and a regional HEI colleague, translating learning into practice to strengthen support for the early career workforce.
“I am humbled and honoured to serve as a lamp escort at the Florence Nightingale Commemoration Service. It is an incredible privilege to represent my fellow FNF Scholars who are an exceptionally inspiring community of leaders at such a prestigious occasion.
“The FNF scholarship programme has been a truly life‑changing experience, offering invaluable opportunities to work alongside colleagues at the Foundation, including contributing to their work on preceptorship.
As I approach 40 years of nursing this November, I acknowledge with deep and sincere appreciation the patients, colleagues, friends, and family who have shaped and continue to shape my career through their support, encouragement, and belief in me.”
About the Florence Nightingale Commemoration Service
The Florence Nightingale Commemoration Service has been held annually at Westminster Abbey since 1965. It is a very important day in the annual FNF calendar and, indeed, for nursing and midwifery communities worldwide, as we come together to give thanks and to celebrate nurses and midwives everywhere who continue Florence Nightingale’s legacy today.
Central to the Commemoration Service is the Lamp. Florence Nightingale was known as ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ as she made her rounds at night tending to the soldiers wounded in the Crimean War.
During the Commemoration Service, a burning lamp will be carried through the Abbey by a chosen FNF Scholar. It will be placed on the altar to represent ‘the undying spirit of the service displayed by Florence Nightingale, demonstrated by nurses and midwives today. The current lamp was first used for the service in 1970, the 150th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. The Lamp Carrier will be followed by two Lamp Escorts, who lead a procession of other esteemed Scholars of the Foundation, followed by student nurses and midwives. This signifies the transfer of nursing and midwifery knowledge to future nurses and midwives.
Florence Nightingale Commemoration Service Sponsor
