BARBARA MADIGAN - Manager of the Year award: Barbara Madigan's journey to last Thursday night's award ceremony began five years ago when she started Abacus Care Nursing Services, a Darlington-based business.

The idea for the business, an agency which provides qualified nurses and nursing assistants to hospitals and care homes, came from Barbara's personal experience.

A registered general nurse, who trained at Darlington Memorial Hospital and has extensive experience in the field, realised there was a need for nursing staff who could help hospitals and care homes when they were short of staff.

Today the agency is exceptionally busy, which is a far cry from when she started out.

She recalled: "When I started the business, there was just me, no staff, no customers, and I ran it from my house."

She advertised for trained nurses, conducted interviews and contacted the hospital and care homes to find out what they required and the business grew quickly.

Her belief that there was a need for her agency has proved correct and in the last five years, the business has grown rapidly, presenting Barbara with an increased need for her managerial skills.

Today she employs three of her own staff and has 140 people on her books, of whom 120 carry out some form of work each month.

Some have other jobs and work for a few hours for the agency, some are part-time and some work full-time, allowing Barbara to meet her clients' varied needs.

The citation for her award praised Barbara for the way she knows her staff by their first names, operates an open-door policy so they can discuss issues freely with her, and is dedicated and inspirational.

Unused to the limelight, the award came as a shock to her.

She said: "I do not have a high profile, I do not network and I tend to keep my head down and get on with the job."