The nurse who gave the first ever Covid-19 vaccination has proposed that a National Thank You Day should take place on July 4.
May Parsons, a matron at University Hospital Coventry, said: “Basically, I think we just do not say thank you enough.”
On December 8 2020, she became the first person in the world to administer a coronavirus vaccination to a patient outside clinical trials.
She told BBC Breakfast: “I think it is important that we show appreciation to our colleagues who have turned up and stopped whatever they are doing just to help us.
“I think it is quite important and this is something I am passionate about as well.”
Kwame Kwei-Armah, artistic director of the Young Vic theatre, said he is backing the campaign because it “just felt beautiful”.
He told the programme: “This is a moment where we can say thank you to anyone who has helped, particularly over these last four years, I would say, where we have gone from one body blow to another.
“I think that, by the time we get to the end of this phase of the lockdown, we are desperately going to want to be close to people and say thank you.”
He added that he wanted to thank everyone who has supported theatre and the arts for “just keeping the faith”.
Actor Michael Sheen, adventurer Bear Grylls and Olympic rowing champion Dame Katherine Grainger are among others who are backing the campaign.
