Christopher Store is a student of medicine at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, after which he is expected to take up his position in the Royal Navy as a trained doctor. Since the beginning of the lockdown, he has been on the front lines doing what he can to help patients fight the novel coronavirus. 

Aside from the obvious physical repercussions the pandemic has had, Store noted that it also had a deeply negative impact on people’s mental health. As has been the case for most things, the most vulnerable people, including those homeless or in difficult living situations, were the worst affected.

“We also saw several elderly patients arriving where they had fallen at home whilst isolating alone. Without family members or carers attending like usual, they’d been stuck lying on the floor for days in some cases,” Store said.

“It was hard to see that the people suffering the most during the crisis were the less fortunate members of society, who seemed to have been all but forgotten while instead social media focused on people panic buying toilet roll,” he added.

All health institutes are split into green and red zones, where red zones deal with Covid-19 patients. Store was originally placed in a different, safer department, but soon decided he had to do more and shifted into actively tackling Covid-19.

Store’s day consists of spending around 12 hours in PPE, doing work that is difficult, dangerous, and exceedingly uncomfortable. Store also said that their equipment and gear does keep them safe but makes it difficult to convey emotion and easily communicate with patients.

Despite all the difficulties the cadet has faced, he would not change a thing. “I feel incredibly privileged to have worked as part of the A&E nursing team providing frontline care to patients,” he said, while adding that it was amazing how the local community had banded together in support of the NHS.

We can only hope that the spirit of our men and women in uniform stays strong. Their strength gives us strength. Let us continue to support our soldiers by keeping ourselves as far away from the infection as possible.