{"id":502157,"date":"2026-03-29T18:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T18:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/502157\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T18:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T18:02:13","slug":"raigmore-hospital-pharmacy-porter-jon-rhoden-wins-top-accolade-and-healthcare-prize-at-highland-heroes-in-inverness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/502157\/","title":{"rendered":"Raigmore Hospital pharmacy porter Jon Rhoden wins top accolade and healthcare prize at Highland Heroes in Inverness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pharmacy porter Jon Rhoden was the definition of modesty after collecting a double win at last night\u2019s Highland Heroes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 67-year-old insisted he will be getting the names of fellow finalists Amy Prentice and Rod Chisholm<\/a> engraved on the healthcare hero award – and he couldn\u2019t quite believe it when he was named hero of heroes.<\/p>\n

\"JonJon Rhoden with awards host Nicky Marr. Picture: Callum Mackay<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I do is run a trolley around the hospital and decorate it,\u201d he said. \u201cThey let me get away with a lot of nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n

But sometimes in life it is the little things that make the biggest difference.<\/p>\n

For the past five years Jon has given his Raigmore Hospital<\/a> trolley a seasonal makeover with decorations at Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Valentine\u2019s Day and throughout the summer as well as bringing sweets and toys too.<\/p>\n

Wee ones particularly love the Nessie hunt where they can search the trolley for baby Nessie and take home their prize!<\/p>\n

Other staff at Raigmore also kindly contribute to the trolley with presents for the Children\u2019s Ward.<\/p>\n

\"JonJon Rhoden collecting the healthcare trophy from category sponsor Eastgate Shopping Centre’s Jon Carter. Picture: Callum Mackay<\/p>\n

This week it is adorned with knitted Easter bunnies and carries choccy eggs alongside the patients\u2019 much-needed medication.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s where Jon needs convincing he is deserving of any accolade – because these patients are perhaps going through the most challenging time of their life. That\u2019s where the odd decoration, treat or knitted whatnot can raise a smile that may be the bright spot in a dark period.<\/p>\n

As we discussed this, Jon said: \u201cDo you know what? Today, I was going to deliver the pharmacy stuff to one of the wards. And there was an older lady sitting outside the room in a chair. The front of the trolley was all decorated with Easter bunnies and chicks plus Easter eggs for people to take. So I was walking along and the nurse was sitting beside her outside the room and she said: \u2018Oh, that’s pretty.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I stopped and said: \u2018Take whatever you want.\u2019 You know, the eggs and stuff and she pulled out a little white bunny. And I thought, that’s the decorations. That’s the props. But didn’t have the heart to say put it back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen when I went back about two hours later to deliver more stuff she was sitting stroking the bunny and I thought bless her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JonJon Rhoden collecting the hero of heroes trophy from category sponsor Highland Broadband’s Kyle Mackay. Picture: Callum Mackay<\/p>\n

The Inverness resident – who is a cancer survivor – would never describe himself as a hero but his kindness and generosity has brought cheer to countless patients in our communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I\u2019m guilty of is injecting a bit of fun into the job \u2012 there\u2019s nothing heroic about that,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember the trolley looked a little bit sad, and it was coming up to Christmas. And I thought, I’m going to add a few lights to it. You know, and it sort of perked up from then onwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JonJon Rhoden says a few words on stage alongside awards host Nicky Marr.<\/p>\n

Jon was among more than a dozen other winners – all who he probably thought deserved the top prize more than him.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the people we heard about here, my word!\u201d he said. \u201cI mean you don’t hear about a lot of these people but when you hear what they have been up to or done, you think, hats off to them. Thank God for people like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here<\/a> to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pharmacy porter Jon Rhoden was the definition of modesty after collecting a double win at last night\u2019s Highland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[7840,445,102,2960,10164,913,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-502157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-community","tag-free","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-keep-me-on-trend","tag-latest-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}