Exeter couple spend Christmas Eve giving coronavirus vaccine to 70 care home residents
A married couple from Exeter are spending their Christmas Eve administering the coronavirus vaccination to elderly residents at a local nursing home.
The couple - who are both medically trained - will visit 70 clinically vulnerable patients at Lucerne House in Alphington.
GP Sam Hilton and his wife Emma, a trained nurse, have called it an "early Christmas present" for those getting the jab.
The couple have also decided to donate the money they'll be earning on Christmas Eve to Action For Children, a charity which provides support to vulnerable young people and their families.
Sam said: "We received an invite asking if we wanted to do vaccinations on Christmas Eve, and initially I thought it was going to be a bit of a joke as nobody would want to do it that day.
"But the more I looked into it, the more it all fell into place. I had the week off already and so I asked my wife and she said 'yeah, let's do it'."
Sam, 39, said some of the residents at the care home near Exeter had been "anxious" about getting the virus due to outbreaks inside.
He added: "It will be an early Christmas present for them and it can help put them at ease."
Sam and Emma have two young children called Tim and Orla. Fortunately, they said, they have people who can care for them today while they help with the rollout of the Covid-19 jab.
"It is always hard to know exactly how to do something good for the world," continued Sam.
"We always say that we'll do something for charity but we never get round to it; but helping people is what Christmas is about really, so we thought ‘why not?’
"We also thought we'd give the money charity, Action for Children, to try and do what we can to help."
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