UST alumna May Parsons, the nurse who administered the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine, will receive the George Cross award on behalf of the National Health Service (NHS), England’s publicly funded healthcare system.
The George Cross is the highest award bestowed by the British government for acts of heroism or courage in circumstances of extreme danger, other than those performed in the face of an enemy.
Parsons, together with NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard, will represent the staff of the healthcare service at the awarding ceremony in Windsor Castle on July 12.
Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by Prince Charles, will confer the George Cross award.
On Dec. 8, 2020, Parsons administered the first Covid-19 vaccine dose—a Pfizer shot to 91-year-old Margaret Keanan.
READ: Meet May Parsons, the Thomasian who administered the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine
She obtained her nursing degree from the University in 2000 and had a three-year stint as a scrub nurse at the UST Hospital.
She then moved to the United Kingdom in 2003 and worked as a scrub nurse for the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust and later became a post-anesthesia care unit nurse.
Currently, she is the modern matron or department head of a UHCW ward where she attends to patients with respiratory problems and infectious diseases.
