The Nicolette Peel Award: 2026 Applications are now closed
Nicolette Peel lived in Glossop and worked as a midwife at Tameside Hospital. She co-founded the charity Mummy’s Star after receiving a second cancer diagnosis when her third child, Frankie, was just a few months old. Nicolette received an MBE in 2020 for her services to women with cancer in pregnancy, and died in 2023 at the age of 50 after first being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007.
Read more about Nicolette Peel
Funding is available for midwifery-based projects and plans that will lead to improvements in care through practice, education, training, or research. Each application is judged on its individual merits.
About the Nicolette Peel Award
- Applications will be for projects or professional training to improve the maternity care of vulnerable pregnant women and birthing people
- First awarded in 2024
- Awarded annually
- Available for student midwives, and midwives registered with the UK NMC
- Maximum award available £2000
- Black and Brown midwives or student midwives can apply for a Dora Opoku Midwives Award or Dora Opoku Student Midwives Award at the same time
Is your project eligible?
You are invited to apply for this award for midwifery-based training, research, or a project, focused on improving the maternity care of vulnerable pregnant women and birthing people. Vulnerable people could include, but are not limited to:
- those with cancer and other life-threatening diseases
- those struggling with addictive substance use or who experience family violence or intimate partner violence
- migrant pregnant women and birthing people or those who have difficulty reading or speaking English
- pregnant women and birthing people who are younger than 20
Applications could include:
- Training courses to develop specialist skills
- Travel to conferences, either as an attendee or to share research findings
- Developing services for vulnerable pregnant women and birthing people
- Assistance with academic fees for Masters or PhD studies
- Organising study days for local midwives
- Undertaking research which will benefit midwives or vulnerable pregnant women and birthing people
See What do we fund? for more information.
Applications are made online. Please read the Application Guidance (link above or see our general video guidance) and our Privacy Policy carefully before applying.
Previous Winners
2025
Kaat De Backer, a doctoral research fellow at King's College London, who will put together a multidisciplinary conference entitled "Women on the edge of care in the perinatal period", to disseminate the latest evidence to a health and social care audience, and amplify the voices of women with lived experience.
2024
Georgina Leech, Perinatal Mental Health Midwife at King's College Hospital, who will use her award to take a Non-Medical Prescribing Course at London South Bank University, enabling her to embed non-medical prescribing into her specialist clinic supporting vulnerable women and birthing people.
