An accident and emergency nurse who is training hundreds of St John Ambulance people to give Covid vaccinations in Dorchester is "proud to lead the volunteers".

Samuel Rogers spoke to the i newspaper about his role with the charity and training around 400 volunteers.

He told the publication: "It has been quite a challenge. We have now trained more than 10,000 volunteers across the country and we are running courses most weekends here in Dorset, which are full: 30 to 40 more volunteers are being trained every weekend.

"It's a mixture of three roles: we have got the vaccinators themselves, vaccination care volunteers, whose focus is on caring for people after their vaccination, and then we have patient advocates who are there to support people throughout the whole process, such as helping someone with additional needs. St John Ambulance has been taking on thousands of applications a week and so we are running virtual interviews on a daily basis.

"My day job is working as a charge nurse in A&E so that brings its own challenges and has kept me very busy. My main focus with St John Ambulance is leading the co-ordination and delivery of vaccination training in Dorset, helping to equip people with the skills they will need."

St John Ambulance is continuing to get applications "thick and fast".

He added: "The volunteers have been emailing me on a daily basis asking whether they can get involved with different things, so we've been able to put people in different centres.

"I'm proud to lead the volunteers locally in delivering this huge project - it's a piece of history really. Hopefully we won't see another time like this."

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