Covid-19 pandemic: Roisin pays tribute to the amazing heroes who are saving lives

By Roisin Pelan

In a time of uncertainty unlike anything we’ve ever lived through, the heroes who are saving lives by risking their own are the people we could never live without. They are the key workers. 

Without our NHS staff, bin men and women, our teachers, our delivery drivers, our selfless volunteers (more than 750,000 answered a call for help in March 2020), and our all important cleaners, I dread to think where we would be.

As a small business owner, living in Preston, Lancashire, I decided to make something to celebrate them, something that they can wear and be recognised for the good they’re doing. These pin badges have been so incredibly popular and it warms my heart when people get in touch to tell me their stories of pride. Frontline staff have contacted me to say they volunteer in hospitals as ‘meet and greet’ staff or helping with food parcel deliveries and they were delighted to have been thought of and valued. 

‘To all the key workers that were not so long ago deemed ‘unskilled’, and all those who helped vulnerable people, you are the absolute backbone of humanity, you are without a doubt invaluable, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts’

Rightly so, there is incredible support for our NHS and I wish that this level of support could be a permanent thing. But it’s easy to forget about all our other incredible workers who are keeping things ticking over as well. I, for one, will never take delivery drivers for granted again. I’m practically on first-name terms with the drivers from DPD,  Hermes, UPS, Prime, and the Royal Mail.

I’m on lifelong chemotherapy and although my treatment was stopped for six weeks due to Covid-19, thankfully it was started back up again and I now have the district nurses coming out to give me my treatment. Always happy, thorough and respectful, they are amazing. 

My sister Lindsey in Australia, who is also coming through breast cancer, has also had some incredible care, and it’s something none of us should ever take for granted.

To all the key workers that were not so long ago deemed ‘unskilled’, and all those who helped vulnerable people, you are the absolute backbone of humanity, you are without a doubt invaluable, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

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