The bravery of Britons involved in the fight against the Ebola outbreak in west Africa will be recognised with a medal, David Cameron announced.
The Prime Minister said the honour would be a mark of the “immense debt of gratitude” owed to NHS medics, the armed forces, civil servants and aid workers who risked their own lives to save others.
That means at least two Huddersfield medics would be honoured. Dr Geraldine O’Hara and nurse Julie Flaherty both worked in Sierra Leone.
They were “incredibly brave people who have worked in very difficult conditions, including many of them over Christmas”, Mr Cameron told MPs.
“They are the people who are helping to save thousands of lives in Africa and protecting the UK from the potentially disastrous consequences of the disease spreading.
“In recognition of the bravery of those from the UK, I intend to recommend to Her Majesty the Queen a new medal to pay tribute to their efforts.”
It would be ready to be awarded by the summer, he suggested.
She is a former student at All Saints Catholic College and grew up in Huddersfield, where her family still live, but she is based in London.
Dr O’Hara was working with a team from Médecins Sans Frontières in west Africa but the team have hit problems.
Consultant children’s emergency nurse Julie Flaherty, 59, spent five weeks in the west African country as part of an emergency response team provided by the UK government.
Mum-of-seven Julie, who lives in Marsden but works in A&E at Salford Royal Hospital, is used to seeing tragedy on a daily basis and has been to disaster zones before, including in Uganda and India.
But she said the conditions in Sierra Leone were “one of the most devastating things” she had ever seen.
