The belated Queen's Birthday Honours list was published today, and it features several Hampshire residents who have gone beyond the call of duty during the Covid crisis.  

Professor Paul Elkington, 50 from Winchester, has been awarded an MBE for services to medicine. 

Paul is a Professor of respiratory medicine at Southampton University and a scientific expert in tuberculosis. 

His working time is split between academic research at the university and clinical work. When the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to overwhelm NHS hospitals in London and beyond, Paul immediately increased his clinical frontline activity. 

He recognised early on the limitations of the available PPE - limited supply, difficulty for certain face shapes and sizes to get effective fit from FFP3 masks, infection control whilst donning and doffing between every patient, the creation of a mountain of disposable waste and finally the difficulty of communicating with and reassuring sick patients when the carer’s face is obscured by an opaque mask. 

His thoughts turned to the difficulties this infection would create for medical services in the developing world where his experience of working with TB in Africa gave him first-hand knowledge of the challenges of sourcing and using PPE. 

In his spare time, he started working on a design for PPE that could be made from cheap and readily available materials in any part of the world with the intention of making the design available online for any country to be able to manufacture highly effective PPE that could be comfortably worn throughout a full nine-hour shift, that did not obstruct the patient’s vision of the carer’s face, and was as effective a barrier as the maximally effective FFP3 masks. 

Paul and an engineering colleague worked (unpaid) nights and weekends refining the design, building and testing prototype PeRSo (PPE Southampton) hoods. They sourced parts (filters, sail material for hoods) and engaged SMEs who could manufacture locally. 

Now staff in the region's hospitals have the option to wear PeRSo hoods throughout shifts. Paul and the PerSo team have also recognised the challenges of providing adequate PPE in low and middle-income countries. 

They therefore provided an open specification of the prototype as a starting point for local manufacturers to adapt for themselves depending on availability and type of components, especially in resource-poor parts of the world, and are providing support and guidance for people in developing countries who wish to adopt PerSO. 

Miss Nicole Geraghty, 27 from Southampton, has been awarded an MBE for services to the community during Covid-19 

Despite a busy role as a key worker for Southern Water, Nicole has given vast amounts of her free time to enable young people from Hampshire and further afield to remain connected and supported during the current pandemic. 

Nicole has tirelessly devoted her free time to support the young people of Sea Cadets, creating and delivering dozens of online Sea Cadet training sessions across a full spectrum of Sea Cadet activity, to inspire and inform the young people of Sea Cadets. 

Her work has been recognised and used nationally, potentially benefiting the less technically gifted volunteers across the 400 units who were nervous about using online delivery. 

In so doing, she has helped keep almost 15,000 young people active and stimulated during lockdown. In creating sessions, Nicole has catered for cadets of all ages and included topics as diverse as leadership, communications, boat work and meteorology. 

Her skills and commitment, often delivering eight-hour long sessions a week on virtual platforms has drawn wide praise from parents and cadets. 

In addition, when the Commanding Officer of Warsash unit stood down, she didn’t want to let down the 60 young people who were struggling to connect with the unit virtually, so she volunteered to take on the running of the unit. 

Mrs Rebecca Kennelly, 38 from Preston Candover, has been awarded an MBE due to her work as director of volunteering with the Royal Voluntary Service (RVS). 

Since joining RVS in 2016 Rebecca has transformed the volunteering programmes, improving the volunteering experience for all our volunteers with excellent communications, support and training. 

She has also established over 150 new volunteer-led community groups over two years, creating sustainable support for thousands of vulnerable people and developed an innovative ‘Step Forward’ recruitment campaign for new volunteers from different backgrounds and ages focussed on ‘hot spot’ areas of the country. 

During Covid 19 she has overseen the rapid design and delivery of the NHS Volunteer Responders programme. The collaboration between charity, technology and public sector has created a service unlike any volunteer programme before. 

She recruited volunteers at pace ‘ 750,000 applied within a week - which were rapidly processed and checked. Surrounding the volunteer recruitment, Rebecca built training guidance, a safeguarding team, a problem-solving team and communications support. 

The app-based system puts volunteers in absolute control of their commitment and means they are likely to stay on-board beyond the pandemic. 

In just 12 weeks over 400,000 volunteer tasks have been delivered to support patients needing help, with 70 per cent of these being undertaken within two hours of a referral being made. 

As of today, 860,000 tasks have been delivered. The creation and delivery of the NHS Volunteer Responders programme was a brand-new initiative born from Rebecca’s design in response to the Covid 19 crisis. 

The programme became her priority focus working round-the-clock to meet the needs of the pressing timetable and scale of response required. In delivering this volunteering scheme with partners, she has helped create something which will have lasting impact and ultimately a transformational influence on volunteering in Britain in the years ahead. 

Mr Stephen Williams, 50 from Portsmouth, has been awarded an MBE for services to to shipping during Covid-19. 

Steve, a port worker within the shipping industry, willingly gave extra service to maintain the levels of production throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. 

During his 30 plus years in the shipping industry Steve has reached senior positions in Immingham and now at Portico, Portsmouth’s international cargo terminal. 

When the Government announced a lockdown, Steve made the decision to stay in Portsmouth and oversee operations at Portico, 200 miles away from his family in Lincolnshire. He remained solely in Portsmouth for three months, so he could manage operations safely for his employees and be on hand to provide support. 

Portico has been vital in managing essential supplies, making sure fresh produce reached supermarket shelves. 

During a heightened time of public anxiety in response to stock available in shops, Steve made sure he had a functioning workforce, many of whom were absent due to COVID-19, to manage the regular arrivals of thousands of pallets and containers of goods. 

One serious issue was crane driver cover, as this is a highly specialised role and critical to the unloading of ships. Fortunately Steve had experience in this area, having been a crane driver previously. 

To help make sure this essential role could continue, Steve took a refresher course so he was able to step into the cab once again and make sure supplies keep moving. 

He stepped into a range of positions, helping in warehouses and unloading ships, clocking up long hours and visiting the site daily to help staff morale. He led by example, inspiring those at Portico to continue working hard. 

Finally William 'Billy' Macleod, 59 from Andover,  has been awarded an MBE for charitable services to Veterans during Covid-19. 

To read more on Billy's story click here.