Sally Orange spent more than two decades helping service personnel returning from conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan recover and rehabilitate.
But when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the qualified physiotherapist turned her skills to a new challenge closer to home, helping at a Nightingale hospital and also in a vaccine centre in her home town of Salisbury, Wiltshire.
She is one of hundreds of veterans who are using their experience from the armed forces to help the booster vaccine campaign in the fight against Omicron.
Sally has also completed countless endurance challenges over the years, including running 70 marathons dressed as different pieces of fruit, and raising over £500,000 for military charities with a particular focus on improving their mental health.
“I have been involved in volunteering in some shape or form for the past 30 years, which first started when I became involved in the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme as a teenager,” Sally says.
“It’s hard to measure the sense of purpose that volunteering gives, knowing that you are helping others as well as gaining connections with the new community you become involved with.”
Sally is not alone in transferring her military skills to fight coronavirus back in the UK.
Helen Roberts, 47, who is from North Yorkshire, is a former warrant officer who joined the Royal Air Force in 1997 as a medic and served just over 23 years, with a final posting at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.
When the pandemic struck, she first helped to support the planning and delivery of large-scale mass vaccination centres, before moving to work on improving NHS services for patients looking at safety incident reporting and risk management.
She says she always wanted to transition to a career in the health service, and the pandemic allowed her to gain valuable experience while contributing to the national effort against the virus.
“The public response to getting boosted has been great, but there is still a long way to go,” she says. “We also need to get everyone boosted so we can get life back to normal as soon as possible.”
The work of veterans like Sally and Helen demonstrates the fantastic skills and experience retired service personnel have gained from their work in the armed forces – and how those skills can still be put to vitally important use even after leaving the military.
Working alongside other veterans means there’s a “great sense of camaraderie”, Helen adds. “We share the same service ethos. If there’s a deadline, we’ll just knuckle down and get the job done.”
The skills that veterans have are transferable to many elements of civilian life, from vaccine boosting to planning and delivering NHS improvements.
And many veterans continue to embody a spirit of service long after they hang up their army, navy or RAF uniforms. The countless examples of retired service personnel giving their time in volunteering, charity or public sector roles is testament to this.
Nigel Jones, from Monmouthshire in Wales, works full-time in the ambulance service as an emergency medical technician, and has also volunteered with the React Disaster Response team travelling the world helping communities affected by natural disasters including earthquakes and hurricanes.
“Most ex-military veterans … can do these things,” Nigel, who volunteered at a vaccination clinic, says. “More than anything, being ex-military and especially from my point of view, emergency services – we’re ‘people people’ and we know how to talk to people.
“There's not a lot that comes across our path that makes us stop dead in our tracks or bamboozles as we can always find a way around it.”
The sacrifice people like Nigel, Sally and Helen have made in helping get the public boosted makes it all the more important that everyone who is eligible for a vaccine comes forward for their jab.
Scientists are clear that two doses does not give you enough protection against catching Omicron. You can book your booster now at nhs.uk/covidvaccination.
Steve Barclay, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “Across the UK, veterans supported their communities as vaccinators, first responders and volunteers over the Christmas period.
“This shows that their spirit of service continues, even if they are now no longer in uniform.
“I thank all those veterans for this effort and remind everyone that the best defence against Covid is to get boosted now.”
