St John Ambulance volunteer from Portsmouth helps recruit more than 100 people to support Covid-19 vaccination efforts

St John Ambulance volunteer Kat Fell has worked hard throughout recent months to enable the vaccine programme to run smoothly, despite being unable to physically get involved.

Kat, from Portsmouth, has volunteered with the first aid charity for four years and has been spending time interviewing prospective St John vaccinators to administer jabs.

She has also helped recruit care volunteers and patient advocates who look after people before and after their vaccination.

Although Kat has an immune deficiency meaning that she’s been shielding, she has been able to carry out this role remotely from home.

Kat, who is a customer liaison officer at Guinness, said: ‘I wanted to be in the vaccination centre but I couldn’t, so it was really frustrating. But when I saw this opportunity my eyes pinged!

‘Before the pandemic, it gave me so much to be out in the community and meet people so this was a great way of connecting again.’

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As there was a lot of work to get through, Kat’s employer Guinness enabled her to finish work earlier on the days that she was volunteering, as some evenings the voluntary work saw her finishing at 9pm.

Kat added: ‘I’m really grateful to Guinness for giving me the flexibility to be part of this important national effort.’

The volunteering role is winding down now as the national effort has recruited around 30,000 people, with St John Ambulance’s vaccination volunteers active at more than 200 vaccination sites.

Kat is now looking forward to returning to events to provide first aid cover.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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