KEY POINTS:
A Red Cross humanitarian aid worker who has been to conflict zones all around the world will be on unfamiliar territory this week when she has afternoon tea with the Governor-General in Wellington.
Marianne Whittington has been to the location of almost every humanitarian crisis in the past 17 years, including Iraq, Darfur, Afghanistan, Angola, Kenya, Thailand and the former Yugoslavia, but Friday's visit to Government House will be her first.
Governor-General Anand Satyanand - patron of the New Zealand Red Cross - will present Ms Whittington with a Florence Nightingale Medal.
The medal is the International Committee of the Red Cross' highest nursing honour and is only awarded to 50 people around the world every two years.
It is given to people who distinguish themselves in times of peace or war by showing exceptional courage and devotion to the wounded, sick or disabled or to civilian victims of conflict or disaster.
Ms Whittington, a trained nurse who was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2008 New Year Honours, has devoted the past 17 years to humanitarian aid work.
New Zealand Red Cross operations manager Andrew McKie said her work in the field during that time had made a real difference to those who need it most.
The idea of working in a humanitarian role was first planted in Ms Whittington's mind in 1987 during a trip to Nepal when she visited the Kunde Hospital, established due to the work of Sir Edmund Hillary and the Himalayan Trust.
Ms Whittington said the hospital and the work people there were doing for the local community inspired her to come home to New Zealand and find an organisation where she could use her skills as a nurse to help make a difference.
" I am part of a much larger organisation and I have a strong belief in the principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement," she said.
When not on humanitarian missions Ms Whittington is based in Auckland and works as a nurse in the emergency department at Waitakere Hospital.
- NZPA
