RPS launches new award to honour pharmacists who died in active service
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has launched a new award to recognise pharmacists who lose their lives while “actively practicing”, it has announced.
The Daniel Thomas Award has been created to recognise pharmacists or pharmaceutical scientists whose lives were “cut short” in active service, the RPS said yesterday (March 29).
Now open for nominations, the award is open to “any RPS member who died while actively practising” and is the society’s “official honour recognising such dedicated service to pharmacy”, it added.
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Pharmacists “tragically passed away” during the COVID pandemic while “in active service to their profession”, but lives have been “cut short” both before and after the pandemic, the RPS said.
The award honours those “who lost their lives pursuing their chosen profession under the most difficult or challenging circumstances” and “dedicated their lives to patient care”, it added.
In honour of Daniel Thomas
The award is in memory of pharmacist Daniel Thomas, who died during the First World War in 1917 whilst working in an infirmary tent, the RPS said.
Born in 1880, Mr Thomas practised in Tonypandy in Wales in the early 19th century and enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps at the beginning of the First World War, it added.
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He served with the 1st Welsh Casualty Clearing Station in Egypt, where he reached the rank of Corporal, but his infirmary tent took a direct mortar hit in 1917 and he was killed.
Mr Thomas is buried in the Kantara War Memorial Cemetery in El-Qantarah el-Sharqiyya, Egypt, according to the RPS.
“Bravery and dedication”
RPS President Claire Anderson said that the society wanted to “honour the bravery and dedication of pharmacists who, like Daniel Thomas and those who worked during the pandemic, tragically lost their lives while at work”.
“Many” pharmacists working during the COVID pandemic “gave their lives after contracting the virus at work”, she added.
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“Pharmacists work incredibly hard to make sure patients get the medicine they need to keep well and many do so whilst putting their own lives at risk,” Ms Anderson said.
RPS chief executive Paul Bennett added that the award “represents the bravery that pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists have displayed for centuries” in risking their own lives putting patients first.
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The RPS will announce the recipients of the award at its annual conference in November, it said.
Their families will also “receive a personal letter and card acknowledging their loved one’s dedication to the profession”, it added.
