Council shows continued support for frontline and key workers

The Council organised a flag-raising celebration in Lagan Valley Island at 10am to express gratitude to all those who have supported our community and work with the most vulnerable people in society. The ceremony was followed by a minutes silence at 11am as a mark of respect for all those who have been lost during the pandemic.

Mayor of Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council Alderman Stephen Martin, said: “This is an important opportunity to pay tribute to all the key workers and frontline staff who have demonstrated the utmost dedication and selflessness every day meeting the needs of our community. By gathering this morning for this short event, we are joining others doing likewise right across the United Kingdom in recognising NHS, Social Care & Frontline Workers’ Day on the this 73rd anniversary of the establishment of the National Health Service.

“Thinking back to March 2020, it can be easy to forget the challenges faced in a high pressurised, fast moving and unprecedented environment. The situation was changing hours by hours but the collective leadership demonstrated was a real time testament to those values of public service we all hold so dear – working together, openness & honesty, excellence and compassionate.

“From police officers pulling extra shifts, domiciliary care workers going above and beyond in the community and medical staff navigating the unknown with complete professionalism, nurses exhausted but still providing the highest possible standard of care, teachers adapting to new technology to educate and reassure young people in scary times or provide key worker care provision, community workers who always and continued to work to keep poverty, hunger and the tsunami of worry from the doors of so many, residential & nursing home staff keeping our relatives safe, admin and clerical colleagues without whom the systems on which so much work dependant many of whom couldn’t work from home, the retail staff, production workers and farmers who every day kept our community sustained and the Council as well as other public servants who ensured essential services were delivered – the list is long and thank you will only really scratch the surface.”

Organised nationally by Pageantmaster Bruno Peek LVO OBE OPR, NHS, Social Care & Frontline Workers’ Day will see a range of events take place throughout the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, the Isle of Man. Bruno said: “Now we have the chance to show our gratitude to all NHS and frontline staff with what I believe will be an annual day of thanks, and remembrance of those who lost their lives because of this dreadful disease.”