Shropshire mum and daughter form vaccination double act
A mother and daughter are getting ready to spend some unusual quality time together – helping to give the Covid vaccine to people from across north Shropshire.
Staff nurse Lillie Birch has been joined in the vaccination hub at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, near Oswestry, by her mum Maggie Kennerley, who has responded to the call for former health workers to return to service.
Lillie, 29, works in the Midland Centre for Spinal Injuries at the hospital.
Maggie, 53, is a former midwife who has had senior managerial roles at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust and Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group, and now runs her own coaching company.
Healthcare very much runs in the family too, as Lillie’s grandmother – Maggie’s mum – Christine Golden is still a healthcare assistant on Powys Ward at RJAH, at the age of 73.
“I went back as a nurse in the first wave of the pandemic,” said Maggie, from Bagley.
“Since then I’ve done my training as a vaccinator alongside my own work.
“Lillie told me I would absolutely love it, and she was right.
"It’s really helped me to reconnect with why I went into nursing in the first place 36 years ago.
"Getting back into grassroots healthcare and dealing with people has been lovely.
“Doing it with Lillie has been amazing. She’s full of life and so bubbly.
Proud
"I’m just the other side of the curtain and can hear her laughing and being so kind with the patients.
“I had this moment of remembering her being a grumpy teenager refusing to do her homework, and suddenly there she was. I’m so incredibly proud of her.”
Lillie, who lives in Park Hall, said: “I’ve loved every single minute of it.
"It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to help your whole community, and it’s very satisfying.
“It’s been really nice doing it with my mum – and the only chance I’ve had to see her is here at work.
"It’s something we can do together and remember forever.”
