Barbara Vickers

Barbara Vickers, an ICT tutor and assessor with North Tyneside Council’s adult learning team, volunteers regularly as a steward to be on hand to assist residents as they come through the centre and provide a friendly welcome.

“It’s just wonderful. To see people come in –maybe anxious at first – then see them after they’ve had their vaccine and to hear what it means to them, it’s so emotional.

“I’ve been volunteering with VODA for a while with different projects and when I heard they were looking for people to help with the vaccine I wanted to get involved in memory of my
parents. I knew that if they were here, I’d want them to have this jab, because I’d want them to be safe.

“I love it, I absolutely love it – to know that in years to come my granddaughter will be able to say – ‘my grandma helped with all of this,’ that really motivates me to keep coming down.”

We have been capturing these moments to tell North Tyneside’s Vaccine Story – a moving digital record of the biggest vaccination programme in the history of the NHS.

From volunteers to medics, nurses, residents and more we have been sharing their stories on social media with the hashtag #MyVaccineStoryNT. We will keep building and adding to this record as more stories come in and more people share their experiences with us.