Western Daily Press (Saturday)
£176k raised to deliver Covid jabs worldwide
ASOMERSET couple have now raised more than £175,000 for the COVAX vaccine relief scheme.
Curry Rivel residents Scott and Rowan Patterson started their ‘Twin My Vaccine’ JustGiving page to donate to Unicef, the lead delivery partner for the COVAX scheme.
Launched in April last year by the World Health Organisation, COVAX is a worldwide initiative aimed at delivering coronavirus vaccines to more than 180 countries to ensure equitable vaccine access.
Despite an initial target of £1,000, which was later increased to a £100,000 target, the current amount raised stands at £176,968.
Mrs Patterson said: “We always hoped that it would have a lot of support because we felt it was such an obvious thing to do.”
It was during the national sense of “hope and relief” in the UK as the vaccine rollout gathered pace earlier this year that the couple started to think about “the fact that not everyone around the world will get that”.
Mrs Patterson said: “We don’t deserve the vaccine more than other people around the world and everybody needs it, so it’s a way of expressing our sense of standing with everyone and expressing love for everyone around the world. The intention was always to reflect the hopes that the vaccine was bringing here by supporting the vaccinations of other people around the world.”
Mr Patterson is a vicar at St Andrew’s Church in Curry Rivel, and their fundraising efforts started in their congregation and then grew from there.
Mrs Patterson said: “The local community have been brilliant. Our first supporters were family and members of our churches, but then the primary school had a mufti day to support us and the cafe in Five head are collecting their tips for us.
“As soon as people read about it, they just want to support it and lots of people have said in the comments that they nearly did something like that themselves.”
At least 1.3 billion doses have been administered around the world, according to data from 222 locations.
Unicef has set the goal of providing vaccines for 20 per cent of the population of every country on the scheme by the end of the year, amounting to two billion vaccine doses.
In these countries, Unicef is providing
We don’t deserve the vaccine more than other people around the world and everybody needs it ROWAN PATTERSON
aid through the training of health workers, supporting the setup of cold chain facilities for vaccine storage and fighting misinformation to promote vaccine confidence.
A spokesperson for Unicef said: “Your support is having a real impact. A donation of around £30 covers the cost of supply of around 25 doses of the vaccine in a country, or it could provide the transport for around 1,028 doses, so it really does make a big difference.
“This is the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation in history and we need all hands on deck to make sure that vaccines reach people all over the world equitably.”
During the third national lockdown, Mr Patterson ran virtual services over Zoom, but has resumed a number of live social distanced services as well, which some have found “a joy” to get back to.
Mrs Patterson noted the lack of services and in-person changes such as a lack of singing have been “challenging as in all walks of life”.
She said: “We’re aware of people in all sorts of different situations, some having to work twice as hard trying to do what they normally do, but under difficult conditions and others where things have just stopped. The extended ‘church family’ has been a great support to each other and has been keen to reach out to support others in the village where possible.”
The Pattersons intend on leaving the fundraising page open as long as it continues to raise money. The page can be found at