The fifteenth anniversary of the R.N.A.O Association awards the "Lois Fairley Nursing Award" to retired nurses in Windsor Essex who faced the COVID-19 pandemic on the front lines.

Every year, a nurse is nominated with the reason for their selection. This year's award "highlights those nurses throughout Windsor and Essex County who left their lives and returned to service in various positions over the past year to confront COVID.

(hospitals, vaccination clinics, volunteer services)," the press release said. In the past two years, the recipients of this award have been "all nurses in Windsor and Essex County" for their outstanding care and extra efforts during the two-year pandemic.

The award is named after Lois Fairley, a graduate of the Grace Hospital nursing program in Windsor in 1955, who spent her career caring for patients at Grace Hospital as a nurse and head nurse.

After Lois's death in 2007, RNAO established this award for Windsor-Essex in 2008.