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Scott Whiteing, The People’s Choice Award, Craft Guild of Chefs 2019
Please vote for our Development Chef Scott Whiteing, The People’s Choice Award, Craft Guild of Chefs: http://cgcawards.co.uk/peoples-choice-vote.
It only takes 30 seconds to place your vote, thank you.
This is Scott’s story.
Scott Whiteing has been working for Genuine Dining since March 2017 as a Development Chef. Along with his experience and a fantastic attitude toward work, Scott brought with him fresh and innovate ideas that are visible across our Genuine sites since his arrival.
Scott supports Genuine Dining with new business proposals, he is an integral member of our mobilisation team by ensuring chefs are trained and developed in line with our Genuine standards, and he supports sites across London with their offers and menus.
On 28th September 2018, Scott was diagnosed with stage 4 Burkitt Lymphoma. For those that have met Scott, this was a huge shock as he is a young guy, extremely healthy and strong.
He was immediately admitted to hospital where he spent the first 8 weeks in isolation. Scott was given the most powerful doses of chemo and radiation available, he had tumours on his spine and was subject to multiple injections, biopsies and operations to help remove them.
Unfortunately, with the treatment came adverse effects. Scott now has severe nerve damage to his spinal cord and is learning to walk again with the help of a neuro physio.
During his time in hospital, Scott showed an incredible amount of endurance and resilience. Bed bound from treatments, Scott would call me and the team to ask for jobs he could do from hospital. From there he would help our teams with menu writing and new business proposals. How he managed to concentrate on his long-term plan of coming back to work stronger while going through such a horrific treatment is beyond me, and I will forever admire Scott for this.
In October 2018, roughly one month after his diagnosis, we held our company’s annual cooking competition, Gen Chef. Scott had been an integral member of the organising team up until he received his news and in the run up it didn’t feel right without him. On the night, to everyone’s surprise and delight, Scott discharged himself from the hospital to attend. An incredible show of courage and an inspirational moment for myself. To see Scott that night, watching him support his colleagues and friends was a humbling moment not just for myself, but to the whole of the Genuine team, we certainly felt like a family that night!
Seven months on from his diagnosis, Scott is now in remission. He has another two years until given the all clear and the damage to his spine is unfortunately irreversible – he has a long road to recovery ahead of him.
Scott has recently come back to work and is now seen across our Genuine sites, doing what he does best in the kitchen and front of house, ensuring our Genuine standards are always being pushed.
I wanted to tell Scott’s story because it is one of courage, determination, grit and perseverance. His bravery to overcome this horrible disease, to see the bigger picture and work hard toward his goals of coming back to work, to be with his friends and colleagues is inspirational.
Looking to the future, I’m excited for Scott and his recovery, for having him back in the business, and to what we can achieve together. This nomination for The People’s Choice Award is a testimony to the journey he has had, and he deserves this more than anyone! Please help Scott win this award, vote for him, and please pass this on to your friends and family. Let’s win this one for Scott!
Thank you,
Chris Mitchell
Please vote for our Development Chef Scott Whiteing, The People’s Choice Award, Craft Guild of Chefs: http://cgcawards.co.uk/peoples-choice-vote.
It only takes 30 seconds to place your vote, thank you.