'Not running away': Women fighting on Britain's Covid-19 front line
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Friday
August 12, 2022

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 2022
'Not running away': Women fighting on Britain's Covid-19 front line

Coronavirus chronicle

Reuters
07 March, 2021, 01:25 pm
Last modified: 07 March, 2021, 01:27 pm

Related News

  • 295 girls and women were victims of torture in the country in July
  • Global Gender Gap Report triggers debate on womens’ condition in Pakistan
  • Where is women's place in the green economy?
  • UP committee needed for helping aspirant women migrants: Experts
  • Pope names women to bishops advisory committee for first time

'Not running away': Women fighting on Britain's Covid-19 front line

At the end of each shift throughout the pandemic consultant nurse Sheeba Philip knew she could take the virus home, where she was caring for her mother

Reuters
07 March, 2021, 01:25 pm
Last modified: 07 March, 2021, 01:27 pm
Sheeba Philip, 44, a Stroke Nurse Consultant at East Lancashire NHS Trust poses for a portrait ahead of International Women's Day at The Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital in north west England, Britain, March 3, 2021. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
Sheeba Philip, 44, a Stroke Nurse Consultant at East Lancashire NHS Trust poses for a portrait ahead of International Women's Day at The Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital in north west England, Britain, March 3, 2021. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

After a year that has shaken Britain's National Health Service to its core, women working at a hospital in the East Lancashire NHS Trust in England's north-west talk about what the coronavirus crisis has meant to them.

THE CONSULTANT NURSE

At the end of each shift throughout the pandemic consultant nurse Sheeba Philip knew she could take the virus home, where she was caring for her mother.

But every day she donned her protective equipment and carried on, driven by a sense of duty like so many other women on the front line against Covid-19.

"I knew that I couldn't shield myself and every day the thought that you could be taking home (coronavirus), it was very difficult," the 43-year-old said. "Going home every day, it was like my prayer in the car outside, 'please Lord get rid of all the germs in me and then I will step into the house'."

The first wave of the pandemic passed, but Philip's mother, who was on dialysis, contracted Covid-19 along with the rest of the family in November.

"I knew, as a nurse, what I should be doing; that end of time was coming and she would not make it," Philip said. "But at the same time, as a daughter, I did not want to let go of it, I just wanted her to hold on to the last straw. I wanted to say and scream at the top of my voice 'no don't, I don't want her to go'."

THE PARAMEDIC

For paramedic Maxine Sharples, 36, a solid barrier between her home lfe and her work for the North West Ambulance service was an essential coping mechanism, following shift after shift of transporting patients who would never return to their families.

"As soon as I get home, I shut the door and I'm back to being a mum and a wife, and I just have to play that role until I go back to work again," she said.

"I think a lot of people in the NHS have that ability to just switch off. I don't think you're born with it. You just learn it and maybe it makes you a little bit hard, as well, but you kind of have to."

THE CRITICAL CARE NURSE

Critical care nurse Jacqui Jocelyn, 53, has worked in nursing for 30 years. Twenty of those have been spent on the intensive care unit at the East Lancashire hospital.

After spending the year being with patients at the end of their lives, while their families were not permitted to do so, Jocelyn's father was admitted to the same ward.

"He was on the unit for three weeks, actually. He fought a good fight. He was a great character," she said.

"All the staff were amazing with him. I don't think it was just because it was my dad. But they went out their way to make him feel special and try and get better, but, unfortunately, he fought a losing battle and died."

THE DAUGHTER

Jocelyn's daughter, 19-year-old Ruby Jocelyn, was inspired by her mother during the pandemic and decided to take up nursing instead of a degree in business and economics. The care of her grandfather by ICU staff inspired her to pursue critical care, following her mother.

"When I started in December it was so, so busy," Ruby said. "The age was dropping and there were people my mum and dad's age on there, and their kids are obviously the same age as me, and I just couldn't believe it and that made me want to help instead of running away."

Speaking about her mother, Ruby described Jacqui as a "tough nut", but the pandemic had taken its toll.

"I think the pandemic didn't necessarily break her, but it did take a layer of braveness off her," she said.

"And I think experiencing it first hand, as well, as a daughter of a patient, and not being able to see her dad or look after him as she wanted, I think she did struggle then but it also gave her a bit of like courage as well."

World+Biz

women / COVID-19 front line

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Infographic: TBS
    Fuel sales drop by 34% following price adjustment
  • The fuel price hike is triggering a chain effect on the whole economy on top of making lives costlier - and for many unaffordable - for the masses. Photo: Rajib Dhar/TBS
    BPC says it can’t afford any more losses. Not everyone is convinced
  • FT report doesn't properly reflect Bangladesh’s position on BRI loans: Ministry
    FT report doesn't properly reflect Bangladesh’s position on BRI loans: Ministry

MOST VIEWED

  • A motorist passes by a mural of frontline workers against coronavirus at RK Puram in New Delhi on July 25. Delhi’s Covid-19 recoveries have outstripped new cases on almost all days this month barring a few exceptions, after ramped-up containment and testing efforts over the past month or so. (Sanchit Khanna / HT Photo)
    Delhi to enforce mask mandate again after spurt in Covid cases
  • A general view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia September 30, 2014. REUTERS/Tami Chappell
    US CDC no longer recommends students quarantine for Covid-19 exposure
  • In this file photo taken on March 2, 2019, Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi. Photo: Hindustan Times
    Kim Jong Un's sister warns Seoul of 'retaliation' over Covid
  • North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks at a politburo meeting of the Worker's Party on the country's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak response in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 21, 2022. KCNA via REUTERS
    North Korea declares victory over Covid, suggests leader Kim had it
  • Workers wearing protective suits arrive to a building under lockdown for compulsory testing, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Hong Kong, China January 7, 2022. Photo :Reuters
    Hong Kong cuts Covid quarantine stay for incoming travellers
  • People line up for nucleic acid tests during lockdown, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Shanghai, China, May 26, 2022. REUTERS/Aly Song
    China's Sanya holiday hotspot shuts duty-free malls, venues to curb Covid

Related News

  • 295 girls and women were victims of torture in the country in July
  • Global Gender Gap Report triggers debate on womens’ condition in Pakistan
  • Where is women's place in the green economy?
  • UP committee needed for helping aspirant women migrants: Experts
  • Pope names women to bishops advisory committee for first time

Features

Some species of mantises resemble flowers, with just one exception — they hunt. Photo: Collected

Mantis memoir: A master predator

2h | Earth
Bye bye! Photographer: Michael Zarrilli/Getty Images North America via Bloomberg

Three major takeaways from the FBI search on Trump’s home

22h | Panorama
Photo: Noor A Alam/TBS

Big dreams in small rooms: The aspiring nurses of Geneva Camp

1d | Panorama
Illustration: TBS

How to deal with toxic people at work

1d | Pursuit

More Videos from TBS

What's next after searching Trump's house

What's next after searching Trump's house

3h | Videos
Dollar rate increasing in open market despite various initiatives by central bank

Dollar rate increasing in open market despite various initiatives by central bank

3h | Videos
Salimullah Khan on Joddopi Amar Guru

Salimullah Khan on Joddopi Amar Guru

3h | Videos
US wants to turn Taiwan into Ukraine, says China

US wants to turn Taiwan into Ukraine, says China

3h | Videos

Most Read

1
Dollar crisis: BB orders removal of 6 banks’ treasury chiefs 
Banking

Dollar crisis: BB orders removal of 6 banks’ treasury chiefs 

2
Diesel price hiked by Tk34 per litre, Octane by Tk46
Energy

Diesel price hiked by Tk34 per litre, Octane by Tk46

3
Photo: Collected
Transport

Will Tokyo’s traffic model solve Dhaka’s gridlocks?

4
Arrest warrant against Habib Group chairman, 4 others 
Crime

Arrest warrant against Habib Group chairman, 4 others 

5
File Photo: State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid
Energy

All factories to remain closed once a week under rationing system

6
Anwar Group looks beyond slowdown – invests Tk5,000cr
Economy

Anwar Group looks beyond slowdown – invests Tk5,000cr

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2022
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]