Ms England Bhasha Mukherjee resumed her career as doctor amid covid-19 crisis
NEW DELHI : Miss England Bhasha Mukherjee (2019) is hanging up her crown (for now) to focus on the coronavirus pandemic. She was in India for a humanitarian trip, returned to the UK to continue her work as a doctor as coronavirus cases surged across the globe.
Bhasha Mukherjee, 24, was a junior doctor specializing in respiratory medicine before competing in the Miss World pageant on behalf of England in December 2019. Although continuing her work at the Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Lincolnshire, after taking home her Miss England sash, she had planned to put her medical career on hold to travel the world for various humanitarian efforts after her latest competition.
However, four weeks into her ambassadorship in India on behalf of Coventry Mercia Lions Club, where she donated stationery to schools and gave money to a home for abandoned girls, news broke that COVID-19 was spreading rapidly back home in the United Kingdom.
Ms Mukherjee had been in India for four weeks when, in the beginning of March, the coronavirus situation worsened in the UK and she began to receive messages from her former colleagues at the Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, eastern England, telling her how difficult the situation.
After Mukherjee started receiving messages from former colleagues about the worsening situation at her hospital, she knew she had to pick up where she had left off. She told CNN she felt she needed to be more hands-on during the pandemic.
“When you are doing all this humanitarian work abroad, you’re still expected to put the crown on, get ready…look pretty,” she said. “I wanted to come back home. I wanted to come and go straight to work.”
“I felt a sense of, This is what I’d got this degree for and what better time to be part of this particular sector than now?” she said. “It was incredible the way the whole world was celebrating all key workers, and I wanted to be one of those, and I knew I could help.”
“I wanted to come back home. I wanted to come and go straight to work,” she said to CNN, explaining that it felt wrong to wear the Miss England crown during a pandemic that has claimed lives and while her colleagues were working so hard.
On April 5, Queen Elizabeth II made a rare address to the British public, thanking health care and essential workers for their tireless effort responding to COVID-19.
“I want to thank everyone on the NHS front line, as well as care workers and those carrying out essential roles who selflessly continue their day-to-day duties outside the home in support of us all,” she said.
“I’m sure the nation will join me in ensuring you that what you do is appreciated and every hour of your hard work brings us closer to a return to more normal times.”
UK on Tuesday reported a record 786 new COVID-19 deaths in its daily update, following two days of falling figures. The country has recorded more than 50,000 coronavirus cases.
(With Agency Inputs ).
