Doctor goes from Miss World to saving world
BEING at the forefront of the battle against Covid brings to mind images of boffins in white coats.
But as a one-time Miss England, doctor and academic Carina Tyrrell is equally at home in bikinis and flowing ballgowns.
Dr Tyrrell, who was crowned in 2014 then came fourth in Miss World that year, has been part of a team at Oxford University carrying out crucial work on coronavirus vaccines and clinical trials.
‘I still really support both Miss World and Miss England and I still judge the Miss England contest,’ the 31-year-old said yesterday.
‘But I didn’t think six years on I would be part of a team searching for a vaccine during a global pandemic on this scale.’
Cambridge graduate Dr Tyrrell was born in Switzerland to British parents – her father Mark is a physicist who helped to build the Large Hadron Collider and her mother Sue used to work at the World Health Organisation.
At the end of her fifth year at university she won her age category at a fashion show after spotting an advert for it in a shopping centre.
That led to her entering the Miss England competition.
But her childhood dream was to tackle global problems such as malaria. She was working with the WHO conducting research on pandemics when the virus emerged.
‘Like many researchers around the world, everybody stopped what they were doing and offered their time to the pandemic,’ she said.
Dr Tyrrell, who lost an uncle to Covid, said of the vaccine: ‘It’s fantastic all the hard work’s paid off.’