Awards: Covid Hero Team of the Year

Optometrist director Jude Edwards and retail director Mukesh Patel joined 500 guests at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London last December for the Optician Awards ceremony. ‘We were grateful to have been nominated and recognised for the work we had done,’ says Patel, adding: ‘We feel the team really deserved it after the long hours and care that they showed our community.’ Judges praised all seven of the shortlisted practices in the category, describing it as a ‘tough call’, but it was the ‘personal sacrifice for others’ that set Specsavers Northampton branch apart.

Specsavers in Northampton was the only practice in the area to remain open during the first national lockdown. More than 40 employees were furloughed and a team of seven remained to serve a population of over 200,000. Despite being members of the BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) community and facing an increased risk from Covid-19, Patel and Edwards – who is clinically extremely vulnerable – pledged to continue to provide eye care for their patients, including moving out of their family homes. ‘I moved out on my birthday on the March 25, and I did not see my nearly two-year-old son until October,’ says Patel.