Donations of food and drinks welcomed by Portsmouth vaccination volunteers

Volunteers and staff at St James’ Hospital Vaccination Centre, Lake Road, Derby Road, Sunnyside and John Pounds surgeries along with Southsea and Eastney medical centres were able to enjoy hot soup, bottles of water, fruit and energy bars as they carried out their roles in delivering the potentially life-saving jabs.

The donations were the idea of Tesco representative Gemma Morrison and co-ordinated by former Rotary Club president Ken Ebbens.

Gemma said: ‘We had already made a big donation to St James’ and Ken mentioned that there are surgeries in Portsmouth that are also giving vaccinations. Tesco wanted to make donations to the surgeries and the people supporting the vaccinations.

‘A huge thanks to Southsea Castle Rotary Club for putting me in contact with the right people to make the donations a great success.’

Ken added: ‘The Rotary Club’s motto is Service Above Self. We also pride ourselves on volunteers and these volunteers are helping to make this vaccination programme a huge success.

‘This programme is something which really benefits the local community and it is great to see this and provide support. Many people see these vaccinations as a ticket to getting back to some sort of freedom.’

SEE ALSO: Pfizer vaccine is effective against Brazil Covid variant - plus UK and South African strains

After receiving the food donations, Lake Road Surgery practice manager Helen Burch said: Wow, this was an amazing donation that was very well received.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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