Shropshire Ebola hero now gearing up to help deliver coronavirus vaccines
A Shropshire medic who helped out in Africa at the height of an Ebola epidemic was delighted to get his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine this week.
Dr Martin Deahl of Newport, was among the health professionals invited to the new vaccination centre at the Telford International Centre on Monday.
The 64-year-old has signed up to help deliver vaccines once he is covered, and he has previous experience dealing with serious virus outbreaks, having spent more than a month working in Sierra Leona, one of the countries worst hit by the largest Ebola outbreak in history in the mid-2010s.
Dr Deahl, a retired psychiatrist, was one of 30 NHS medics sent to Sierra Leone to help amid an epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people in western Africa.
On Monday, when he was given his vaccination at the International Centre, he queued patiently to be injected and to book his follow-up appointment to receive more protection.
He said that the feeling in the queue was excited, akin to waiting at Holy Communion.
He described it as an "auspicious day", as his wife was also being deployed to intensive care at New Cross Hospital.
"I think it's wonderful how many retired health professionals have come forward to help," he said.
"We've spent so much time criticising the Government, but this is as good as it gets."
He said that much of the research that went into the coronavirus Astra-Zeneca vaccine had developed from work done against Ebola.
"It's nice to see what was blue sky research at the time going to help now."
