UHP staff receive certificate of bravery
In October 2025 the Security team at UHP were confronted with a situation involving an armed individual on site at Derriford Hospital. Subsequently awarded bravery certificates, the team of 6 are now sharing their story of how they worked together to disarm the individual and prevent the situation escalating.
Ryan Goodwin, Fire safety advisor at UHP, was the first to notice the individual had a knife: “I was completely shocked. I asked him why he had the weapon, and he said he intended to cause harm to someone. I told the man he had to leave and managed to get him towards an exit. Once he had gone out of one of the exits, I alerted security”
Security, having already been alerted about the individual quickly arrived on scene where they worked with Ryan to locate the man to prevent him re-entering the hospital.
Josh Mutton, Security Officer, said: “Once we had managed to catch up with the individual, my colleague George used a nearby unused traffic barrier to help contain him and to put some distance between us and the weapon. As we managed to get closer, we were able to safely disarm the individual, and we detained him until the police arrived to arrest him”.
Reflecting on the situation, and how it felt to know their actions prevented any potential harm to patients or staff, Ayoola Oyebadejo, NHSP Security, said: “When we first saw the knife, we were all aware that it had the potential to cause a lot of harm. We all worked together in a dangerous situation to prevent escalation, and it feels amazing to know that we did protect people”.
Security officers Zack Sambore, George Morris, and Pavlos Toursiadis were also part of the team who bravely dealt with this incident. George said: “It really was a team effort, no one shied away, we all got involved. I know that I personally felt like I had achieved something that day, as if our team had not been there, the situation could have ended badly”.
Everyone involved emphasised that teamwork was the key for their success that day.
Josh said: “We never know what each day will bring, but having experienced this, I know that whatever comes through the hospital doors, our security team can deal with it”. 
All six members of staff involved in this incident were awarded certificates of bravery at a Trust board meeting for their actions on the day. Reflecting on what it felt like to receive this award, Pavlos said: “It’s something we do day to day; we don’t come to work to be praised, but we all appreciate the recognition”.
The team are hugely appreciative of the certificates and thank their managers for the support they were given after the incident, as well as the recognition they received for their actions that day.
John Stephens, Director of Infrastructure & Site Services said: “We are proud of the team, and the work they do to keep the hospital safe every day. It is not expected of any of our security guards to put themselves in dangerous situations involving weapons, so the team having the confidence in each other to work together to diffuse this situation was very brave, and we are very thankful for their courage”.
