Healthcare assistant spends 18th birthday fighting Covid-19

Mum Martine, Sam and Dad, Scott Dickson

A healthcare assistant has chosen a special way to celebrate his 18th birthday – by fighting Covid-19.

Sam Dickson, from Anchorsholme, was unable to celebrate properly because of lock down restrictions, so instead chose to work a night shift on Ward 23 at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

A social media shout out from Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust highlighting this resulted in 1800 birthday wishes on Facebook, 1800 likes on Twitter with 194 comments and 103 retweets.

Sam said: I am completely overwhelmed by all the birthday wishes and reactions I received! I really don’t see that I have done anything special, I just went to work. Now I have my new phone I can sit and read all the wishes from all over the world!

“When it came to my birthday, I thought as I can’t go out and celebrate I’m going to go to work and fight this virus. The sooner we get rid of it the sooner we can all get back to our families.”

Sam’s original plans had been to celebrate with a meal on the day with my family, including grandparents who he has not seen since the lock down began. He also planned a night out with his girlfriend, also a HCA at the Trust.

And as a result of the social media posts, Sam has received some generous offers from two local night clubs to have a night on them.

Sam parents also work for the Trust. Mum Martine, a staff nurse in the Emergency Department, said: “My husband, an Emergency Department Assistant, and I.

have always tried to make birthdays special but were very surprised that Sam decided to work. He doesn’t get why but we are both very proud of him! We had a mini party for him before his shift.

“We were astonished about the amount of media interest generated by his birthday post. I put a couple of posts on thinking he may get maybe 100 wishes but it seems the people of Blackpool are just as proud of him! He even got a birthday tweet from our Chief Nursing Officer Ruth May which made him proud.”

Sam added: “Listening to my parents discuss their shifts and what a great family BTH is, made me want to become a nurse at the Trust.

“After the lock down, I’m really looking forward to going for a big slap-up family meal.”

 

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