Our North Down key workers!
We have been running a series of posts on our public Facebook page featuring North Down members who have been, and are, out there as key workers making a difference during difficult times! This is a random order collation of those posts and thanks to Aaron Saunders for putting them together. We’re extremely proud of each and every one of them, keep up the good work!
Jenna Hoey. While Jenna has been busy racking up 11 goals this season, she has also been working hard at Tesco where she has been organising staff and applying new social distancing regulations to make shopping less stressful and, more importantly, safer for everyone.
Rachel Mornin. Rachel is fully devoted to her hockey at NDHC, having played at our Club for over 12 years, but she is also devoted to her job working as a NHS Dentist at Turk Dental Care in Belfast. Currently they are only seeing emergency patients due to the virus, but are also offering advice over the phone. On her days off, Rachel is also volunteering in a local pharmacy to help out where she can!
Jason Purvis. As well as being a regular for the 4s and 5s, Jason is usually found at the top of the karaoke list ready to blast out “Hero” by Nickleback. Recently though, Jason’s heroism has come in the form of working as one of the managers at the SSE Arena COVID-19 test centre. He has been looking after the process for administering self test kits to the public, supporting them in registering their details, and also collecting completed tests. Jason has also assisted with the launch of mobile testing units across the country which allows smaller scale units to provide test capabilities in remote areas.
Nikki Ferris. Many will know Nicola as one of our brilliant goalkeepers who plays across all our teams, but she also works as a MRI Radiographer at the Royal Victoria Hospital as part of the neuroscience and acute centre dealing with patients who have suffered brain or acute spinal injuries. This is an on-call service made available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. During these troubling times, we sometimes forget that services such as these still need to continue in order to provide care to those who find themselves in terrible circumstances.
Laura Murray. Laura usually plays for the ladies 3s at the weekends, but spends the rest of her week working as an NHS dentist where she continues to see emergency patients only. Laura also carries out phone consultations and evening and weekend out of hours calls, as well as volunteering in other areas of the NHS, like becoming a Clinical Contact Caseworker with COVID positive patients in England.
Karen Jackson aka “KB”. Karen has played at our Club since she was just 15 years old and thoroughly enjoys playing alongside her “veteran” teammates! Hockey aside, she works as a Biomedical Scientist in the Haematology & Blood Transfusion Lab at the Ulster Hospital. KB has many roles, the majority of which involve interpreting the results of various blood tests and investigating, under microscopy, any that appear to be abnormal. From investigating the samples, KB can determine a variety of abnormalities such as a variety of anaemias. Another part of her role is to ensure that donated blood is compatible with patients that may require a blood transfusion.
Jordan Linter. Jordy is usually found fighting to keep the ball from crossing the line at short corners, but today he’s fighting against COIVD-19 through his work for Randox Health where he is assembling and distributing COVID test kits!
Megan Murray. Megan is often required to demonstrate her defensive abilities on the field, something that she is also demonstrating at work by helping protect her patients! Megan is a Pharmacist on the Paediatric Respiratory and Acute Medical Ward in Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children. She is responsible for ensuring medicines are suitable and safe for patients and works alongside doctors and nurses helping to provide the best care possible!
Lauren Brown. Lauren captains our ladies 1st eleven but also works as a Pharmacist at Horner Pharmacy in Comber. Lauren and the rest of the team there are working really hard to ensure everyone in Comber has the medication they need during these very troubling times!
Katie Allen. Katie has just finished her first season at North Down and is part-owner of two of our favourite club mascots, Charlie and Cooper! Katie also works at the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Belfast as a midwife where she does a bit of everything, from delivering babies to looking after pregnant and postnatal women bringing reassurance and positivity to her work!
Greg Bell. We all know Greg for his determined solo runs on his reverse stick, but he also works as a porter at the Ulster Hospital and is responsible for moving patients around for x-rays, surgeries etc. so Greg is very much on the frontline of this fight against COVID-19!
Finally, thank you to all our amazing club members who haven’t been represented here. We know there are more of you out there and we are just as proud of every single one of you!
