The former Olympics badminton Silver Medalist and Badminton World Champion in the mixed doubles, Gail Emms; has turned covid-19 tester. After completing and passing an NHS training programme.
A former badminton world champion is joining NHS key workers at a drive-in Covid-19 testing station in Milton Keynes.
Miss Emms will now work eight-hour, four-day stints at the station.
The test is performed by a taking a swab from the back of the throat and up the nose.
The retired athlete began her first eight-hour shift with the team last Tuesday –
“I have no medical training but I’m fit and healthy – and I felt a deep sense of duty,” she said.
The 42-year-old received training in the wearing of protective equipment and how to securely collect and handle samples, adding that she personally carried out “about 40 tests a day” since starting this week.
“A lot of people have been enjoying lockdown, but I’m not one of those people – it’s been a real shock to the system, horrendous,” she said.
“I needed to do something, to get out there and help. I felt useless.”
She praised the NHS staff on the front line as “amazing, every one of them”.
Mother-of-two Miss Emms retired from international badminton after the Beijing Olympics in 2008, where she and partner Nathan Robertson took silver in the mixed doubles. They won gold in the 2006 World Badminton Championships.
