Clare May, Senior Lecturer in Medicines Use tells us about her role as volunteer for the Commonwealth Games.
In December 2017, it was announced that Birmingham would host The XXII Commonwealth Games in 2022. Fast forward five years, and with the memories of lockdown still fresh, it is difficult to believe that the countdown has started.
The Games requires a significant investment from volunteers in order to manage the 6300 athletes and athlete support personnel involved in delivering 11 days of competition. This group of volunteers will be known as the “Commonwealth Collective” and will become the face of the Games for the 1 million-plus spectators.
Volunteering is the lifeblood of many organisations and, for as long as I can remember, I have always had a volunteering role within my community. However, in recent years, the focus of my volunteering has been at sporting events, so I was thrilled to find out that I beaten the competition and secured a position as a pharmacist in the principal athletes’ village at the Commonwealth Games, based at the University of Birmingham. #B2022 was inundated with over 25,000 applications, which had to be whittled down to approximately 13,000 positions to fulfil over 300 different roles. A key team within “The Collective” is the medical team made up of a variety of healthcare professionals involved in providing clinical services to the athletes, team officials and The Games’ family members. Whilst working in the polyclinic, I will utilise my expertise within the area of Drugs in Sport to provide pharmaceutical related services in line with the “#B2022 Healthcare and Pharmacy Guide”, which I helped to co-author.
The capabilities and experience that I have gained through my lifelong learning in my pharmacy career has opened the doors to so many wonderful experiences such as this. To learn a little bit more about my journey please visit the BPSA website:
https://www.bpsa.co.uk/pubs/the-doors-that-pharmacy-have-opened-for-me
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