Some of the regions responders to the COVID-19 pandemic have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Mrs Pat Mayle, Mrs Kathryn Davies, Mr Peter Harding, Mr Andrew Miller, Mr Gareth Mallion, Mr Leon Anthony Harley Mundell, Mrs Michele Nel and Mrs Julia Taylor will receive an MBE for their efforts to the COVID response.

Pat Mayle, from Eccles, has been honoured for services to Girlguiding and to the COVID-19 response. Pat has been a committed volunteer for over 50 years and saw an opportunity for Girlguiding to help during the pandemic.

Pat was struck by the kindness of the staff at Salford Royal hospital following her late husband’s emergency admission when she was given a ‘comfort bag’ so she could stay by her husband’s side (this bag contained what she needed to stay with him). Pat saw an opportunity for Girlguiding to help. In just the first year, Girlguiding had packed and distributed nearly 1,000 bags made-up and donated by girls and young women in guiding.

Throughout the Covid-19 crisis, Pat has worked intensively to promote the scheme both in Girlguiding and in local hospitals and has adapted the scheme to directly benefit the NHS staff who are working tirelessly at this time.

She has delivered 2,600 bags to hospitals over the North West through her network of volunteers and units and, for NHS staff, started to include over 700 treat bags (hand cream, coffee sachets, sweets, hand sanitiser, cans of drink) for NHS staff as well as 1,000 laundry bags for them to store their scrubs prior to washing.

Kathryn Davies, an employee of the Co-operative bank, initially went above and beyond helping customers who were out of the country have access to money which helped them return home.

She also volunteered to support NHS workers and patients across the country by organising and distributing around 400 care package donations from the bank’s employees. Care packages were sent to many hospitals across the UK including Greater Manchester, Ormskirk, Stoke, Macclesfield, Tameside, Preston, Stirling and Carmarthenshire.

Peter Harding, from Whitefield, is honoured for services to critical national infrastructure during the Covid-19 response. Harding is senior delivery manager at TalkTalk Business, delivering hundreds of key services and maintaining their connections.

As well he supported upgrades and new connections across the whole country including; logistic providers, 81 GP surgeries, 222 Schools and 41 NHS Care Homes.

Andrew Miller, who is also a senior delivery manager at TalkTalk Business received an honour for service and achievements during COVID-19 response.

He was instrumental in ensuring that TalkTalk Business was able to connect critical COVID-19 response sites to ensure public sector sites had appropriate infrastructure to manage increased demand.

From a standing start in mid-March, Andrew and the team collaborated with partners, including Openreach, to deliver over 1,200 connections to sites identified as critical by the Government. Andrew personally managed the process to connect more than over 80 critical sector sites (including Nightingales Excel London, Harrogate, Exeter).

Gareth Mallion is a Network Rail employee and has been honoured for services to the NHS.

He played an integral role in the creation of the NHS Nightingale Hospital in Manchester. He volunteered for this role, which is completely outside of his normal job, and provided key logistical support to get the hospital ready to receive patients.

He arranged the storage of all the equipment on the site and managed the offsite storage of hospital equipment at the Network Rail warehouse at Warrington.

Leon Anthony Harley Mundell is a long time care charity worker who, when the Coronavirus lockdown caused the charity to cease operations, personally took over the provision of several of the charity’s vital services.

The African Caribbean Care Group (ACCG), established in 1983, is a registered charity providing Health and Social care support to, and working to alleviate social isolation and loneliness of, older adults of African and Caribbean descent in Manchester, Trafford, Salford and Stockport.

As the ACCG has been closed during the Coronavirus crisis, he continued to work from home, delivering homemade meals to the service users homes, whilst also cheering them up with his singing and jokes at their door, providing important moments of contact for people who are already lonely and isolated and many of whom, due to their age, are now part of the at-risk shielding group.

Michele Nel has volunteered for over 20 years donating thousands of hours. During Covid-19 a midwife asked if she could make headbands to stop sore and bleeding ears caused by elasticated face masks. She immediately sought volunteers to help and started Headbands for Heroes.

The sewing group has grown to 99, four administrators and 73 couriers who have made and delivered over 13,000 headbands nationally to key workers.

Julia Taylor has made an extraordinary contribution to Nursing, the speciality of urology nursing and service to the NHS over her 40-year career.

During the first wave of Covid-19, Julia made it her mission to ensure patients requiring on-going urology treatment have continued. She developed a triage system to ensure new patients to the service where prioritised and received a consultation.

Also honoured on the Queen’s Birthday Honours list are Damian Antony Edwards (services to the community of Alkrington), Andrea Greenall (services to the NHS during COVID-19) and Simon Lea (services to the Covid-19 response) who have been awarded a BEM.

Qaisra Shahraz (services to gender equality and cultural learning) and Hera Hussain (services to charity) have also received a BEM.

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