Your Covid 19 Heroes - Part 2
This is the second of our series of blogs focusing on the six lucky winners of our free ‘Who is your Covid Hero’ cycling camp places in spring 2021. For those of you that don’t know, Viva Velo ran a ‘Who is your Covid Hero’ offer starting in March of this year seeking to reward just some of the thousands of people who were responsible for keeping us all going during those early months of the crisis. As a cycle tour company, Viva Velo cannot manufacture PPE or ventilators but we thought that if we could offer some light at the end of the tunnel for just a few of those Covid heroes by giving them a free cycling holiday then we’d be helping them in some small way.
We had a fantastic response to the offer – as you might expect – and it was extremely hard to pick just six of the nominees to receive the free places. But for those who missed out there was the opportunity to join us in Mallorca by taking one of our ‘not-for-profit’ places for just £300. Viva Velo make no profit at all from these places (as the name implies) and they represent a bargain we hope you agree!
Scott Simspon - and avid cyclist who believes that the sport has helped him cope with the pressures and difficulties of administering the government’s financial support schemes during the Covid crisis.
Covid Hero: Scott Simpson - HMRC Advisor
Scott Simpson is a 52 year old civil servant, based just outside Glasgow. He was nominated for a place in the competition, by his frontline NHS ‘Nurse Practitioner’ partner Audrey. When she read out the email to Scott, notifying him that he’d won a place at the Viva Velo ‘Covid 19Hero Camp’, he was astounded as he was delighted in equal measure.
“As an advisor for HMRC, we certainly know not to expect much in the way of praise for the work we do. Resolving tax arrears is never going to win us many fans after all. So being in employment as the dreaded ‘Tax Man’, didn’t seem an obvious choice for a ‘hero’ camp. Especially as Audrey herself had earlier this year, volunteered her surgical nursing skills at an Ethiopian Mobile Eye Clinic. She packed her scrubs, joined an experienced Glasgow surgical charity unit & helped to restore sight to 270 patients in under a week! A remarkable achievement and one certainly more worthy of the accolade of ‘hero’ than I.”
But we think Scott is being too modest. Covid-19 when it hit the UK, hit very quickly & the government rushed out emergency measures to assist us all, in overcoming ‘Lock-down’ and it’s devastating economic effects. Civil Servants were tasked directly by the Chancellor, with implementing a stream of new legislation, new systems, guidance, and procedures, vital to keeping the country running. The ‘Furlough for Employees’ and ‘Self-Employment Income Support Schemes’, were designed and implemented, at a pace that anyone with knowledge of governmental practice, would rightly regard as practically ‘overnight’! That this was done, with a large percentage of the workforce ‘shielding’ and transitioning to home-based work, made it all the more remarkable.
Throughout the pandemic outbreak, Scott’s circumstances allowed him to continue being office based. With careful social-distancing measures, he attended the office every working day and still continues to do so. The extremely fast-paced learning, understanding & implementation of the new role in administering the emergency programs, was a massive uphill challenge. Deadlines were critically tight and he and his colleagues put themselves under extreme pressure to deliver: rightly, for once, receiving praise for their dedication and hard work.
As a life-long cyclist, Scott has often thought that the hardships of cycling, especially in a country as beautiful but inhospitable as Scotland, can sometimes instil a mental coping strategy that helps in life in general. Simply ‘tap it out’! Certainly, when it comes to dealing with the stresses placed in him during the Covid crisis, that ability to wilfully apply real stamina and just keep going, has seen him through.
As a junior Scott raced time trials & track (at the former Meadowbank velodrome in Edinburgh) for his local cycling club. Then, having taken a break - mainly due to the distractions of work, women & beer! - he returned to the bike and rekindled his former love affair with cycling. His former fitness returned but then adversity struck and Scott was seriously injured in a needless road accident: hit sideways-on by a bus, whilst traversing an uphill roundabout on a clear sunny day! Despite Scott wearing bright colours, it seems the driver just didn’t see him. The result was life changing.
The road to recovery was long & painful, Scott had broken vertebrae, a broken shoulder that required surgery to remove bone and was left permanently deaf in one ear. Prior to the accident, he ran every day, something he is no longer able to do physically. However, by rebuilding his fitness gradually, he is now once again, back on the bike & loving it more than ever!
If more proof of Scott’s ‘hero’ status was required this must surely be it! We’ll leave the last words to Scott,
“The chance to join this camp, set in such a beautiful iconic location. With an impressively professional set-up & with such a worthy group of cyclists, is for me, a dream come true. I simply cannot thank you enough, for accepting Audrey’s nomination & giving me a place… but I’ll say thank you anyway & I’m very much looking forward to joining you.”
Scott we look forward to welcoming you to Mallorca next spring. In the meantime keep well and keep cycling.
Amy Pritchard in a photo taken on the roof of the Royal Free Hospital where she works - she is the last on the right in the back row in the Gingham dress!
Covid Hero: Amy Pritchard - Chief Nuclear Medicine Technologist - Royal Free Hospital
The fourth of our ‘Covid Heroes is Amy Pritchard who was nominated by her friend, Nikki. Amy is the Chief Nuclear Medicine Technologist at The Royal Free Hospital in London. Since February 2020, around 1,500 patients with COVID-19 have been treated at the Royal Free London and during that time, wards were reorganised and the trust doubled its ICU capacity.
Many staff were moved into different roles – including nurses and doctors from around the trust who were given additional training so they could work within the expanded ICUs.
At the beginning of the Covid outbreak Amy re-organised her department to put all the necessary safety measures in place for her team of 20 technologists and then volunteered to work in the intensive care unit to help out her ICU colleagues who were obviously overstretched. This involved her doing 12.5 hour shifts - including night shifts - in full PPE caring for desperately sick patients. Working on Monday nights in ICU and in her own department from Wednesday - Friday in the daytime meant that even though she tried to sleep during the day on Tuesdays she was falling asleep at her desk sometimes on Wednesday afternoons. An incredibly tough ask I am sure you’ll agree and yet Amy volunteered to do this while still doing her normal job and raising her two children!
Amy is clearly a remarkable individual but her talents are not confined to her job at the Royal Free Hospital. She is an incredible athlete – a multiple world age group champion in multi-sports, cycling is her passion. She founded and basically organises single handed The Team Liv Camden women’s cycle club which was started to help women get into road cycling, it is now a thriving club, still attracting novices and helping them build confidence riding but also with many members achieving great success in multi day rides and challenges and triathlon.
As such, Amy was a natural choice to be a recipient of one of our free Covid 19 Hero camp places as at Viva Velo we have a reputation for helping novices gain confidence in their cycling and are particularly proud of the fact that 40% of our clients at our Mallorca camps are women. I’ll leave the last word though to the person who nominated her, Nicola Timmins,
“Amy is truly remarkable and definitely deserves a holiday and as she loves nothing better than riding her bike this [trip] would I am sure be hugely appreciated by her.”
Nicola, glad to be of service, and we look forward to seeing you both in Mallorca next spring.
Amy Pritchard - competing in Triathlon and cycling his her passion.