Dr Cristina Fernandez Turienzo, a nurse, midwife and senior research fellow at the Department of Women and Children’s Health, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, has received the prestigious FUDEN Nursing in Development Award 2025.
The award was presented at a major gala in Madrid, Spain. FUDEN (Fundación para el Desarrollo de la Enfermería) is a non-profit organisation that champions the strategic role of nurses in education, research, leadership, and innovation to transform people’s lives and promote their vital impact on society.
Cristina and the 2YoungLives teams at Lifeline Nehemiah Projects in Sierra Leone and King’s College London, which also includes, won the ‘Co-responsible initiatives’ category. The team also includes nurses and midwives Lucy November and Prof Jane Sandall. This category honours collaborative programs and activities led by nurses which aim to improve the lives of the most vulnerable and marginalised populations worldwide.
The award recognises the 2YoungLives project, a locally developed community-based mentoring intervention developed after Ebola in 2017 to support pregnant adolescents in Sierra Leone, a country with very high maternal mortality rates, especially among adolescents. The programme supports girls from pregnancy until one year after birth, using trained local women as mentors. These mentors provide vital one-to-one support, encouraging the girls to use health services, re-establish family connections, and return to education or start small businesses.
The CRIBS NIHR-funded 2YoungLives cluster trial, recently published in The Lancet, included more than 670 adolescents and found the intervention reduced a composite of maternal and perinatal deaths by nearly 50%. For every 18 girls who received 2YoungLives, one baby’s live was saved.
On receiving the award, Dr Fernandez Turienzo said:
“It was a real privilege to receive this award on behalf of the 2YoungLives team. I also want to echo the fantastic work that FUDEN does in promoting and giving visibility to the leadership and impactful work led by nurses in Spain and globally. This award helps shine a light on the critical health needs of adolescent girls in Sierra Leone and the potential of locally developed solutions for communities to survive and thrive”
Cristina and colleagues are currently completing the process evaluation and cost-effectiveness analysis, with future plans focused on long-term impact and scaling the intervention in Sierra Leone and other countries.
The XI FUDEN Gala, held on the 13th of November at the Teatro Real in Madrid, was presented by TV presenter and radio broadcaster Sara Escudero and attended by over 1,500 nurses, healthcare leaders, researchers, and policymakers, with a remarkable closure from nurse and president of MSF Spain Paula Gil Leyva.
Prof Jane Sandall said: ‘I am delighted that the work Dr Fernandez Turienzo has led has received this recognition. In particular, her work shows how nurses can lead large multi-disciplinary research projects, which not only make an impactful difference to adolescent girls in Sierra Leone, but are recognised by the Lancet in terms of academic high-quality research’
The video for the nomination can be accessed here: https://enfermeriaendesarrollo.es/premios/candidaturas/cristina-fernandez-turienzo/
The Lancet paper can be accessed here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)00454-4/fulltext