A Renfrew man awarded an MBE for running the government’s Lighthouse covid testing mega lab has admitted the job has “taken over his life”.
As head of operations, Paul John Fairie managed a team that set up the lab in just seven days.
Paul has seen the lab - formed within the Queen Elizabeth Hospital complex in Govan - expand capability as covid numbers soared.
He is currently overseeing the ramping up of the operation - the only one in Scotland - to 150,000 tests every day.
When it started in March 2020 it was only able to process 25,000 samples.
And Paul, among those named in the New Year Honours list, revealed: “I am not going to lie, it has been relentless and has basically taken over my life.
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“However, I believe the contribution is worth it, to try and support the UK Government network in beating this nasty virus.”
Paul says he loves living in Renfrew with his fiance Andrew John Weir, who works in the care sector in the town.
He remains in his principal role as head of operations for the University of Glasgow in the Medicine, Veterinary and Life Sciences department.
He rapidly identified the university’s base within the Queen Elizabeth Hospital as being the best fit for a new test centre.
It handles PCR tests from around the UK, alongside a small number of sister operations down south.
Paul headed a joint estates team of university and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde staff to established the super lab over four floors.
He said: “We initially designed the existing lab to be able to process 25,000 samples daily.
“This took careful planning from a clinical, healthy and safety and infection control perspective, but we managed to turn this around very quickly with a massive team effort.
“Since then we have been asked by the UK Government to ramp up to 40,000, 85,000 and then 105.000.
“We are currently involved in ramping up to processing 150,000 tests daily.”
He says receiving the MBE was a surprise and a delight and has no idea who recommended him for the honour.
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