Defining the spirit of the Red Cross, Max Huber once said that “it is to accept to sacrifice oneself to help others”. He added that, in order to preserve the essence of this spirit, “there must be spontaneous action … there is a kind of silent heroism in the work carried out daily for the sick”.

Who can show this better than nurses who devote all their energies to others? It is this disinterested service in a world which is more often than not obsessed by material success, which is the finest of examples given due recognition by the awarding of the Florence Nightingale Medal.