Mum’s idea lifts nation’s spirits TV doc faces crisis with calmness
Annemarie Plas
MUM and part-time yoga teacher Annemarie launched the hugely successful Clap for Carers as the pandemic began.
She started what became a weekly event nationwide in her own South London street – after seeing something similar in her home country Holland.
Soon millions of us, including the rich and famous, were taking part in applause for frontline workers on our doorsteps at 8pm each Thursday.
Clap for Carers returned under the new name of Clap for Heroes for the third lockdown.
Annemarie, 36, said she hoped the initiative would “lift the spirit of all of us” including “all who are pushing through this difficult time”.
Dr Jenny Harries
ONE of the few women involved in the Government’s Covid response team, Dr Harries, 62, was appointed Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England in 2019. She has regularly appeared in the daily Downing Street press briefings and has been dubbed a “national treasure” by Vogue as the standout communicator of the emergency.
Dr Harries, an OBE, has a long and established career, with qualifications in pharmacology, medicine, business administration, public health and health economics.
She has been praised for being calm and collected with a total focus on facts and the most up-to-date science.
Vogue said she had “diplomacy – and a mind like a steel trap”.
NAZANIN Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s five-year jail term ends today but husband Richard fears she will not be free for months.
Nazanin, 43, has been detained in Tehran since 2016 over claims she belonged to groups that plotted to overthrow the Iranian government.
Richard revealed he met Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab this week who told him the Government was “close” to securing Nazanin’s release. But he said Mr Raab added: “We don’t think it’s this weekend if I’m being honest with you”.
Richard said: “My takeaway was that it could still be months.”
The couple’s daughter Gabriella, six, made an advent-style calendar and has been crossing off the
days in the last month.