Hampshire Search and Rescue (HANTSAR) volunteers have received a prestigious Skills for Health Our Health Heroes Award for their efforts supporting Covid-19 testing and vaccination.

HANTSAR volunteers, including those from East Hampshire, gave up their time between Christmas and new year 2020 to help get lorry drivers tested at Portsmouth International Port before they returned to the continent.

Also in December, as the vaccination rollout gathered pace, HANTSAR volunteers trained to work as vaccinators so that when vaccination centres opened they, together with their team colleagues, were ready to step up.

Between January 2021 and January 2022, more than 70 HANTSAR volunteers filled hundreds of shifts as professional guides and vaccinators at the main mass-vaccination centres in Southampton, Portsmouth and Basingstoke.

More recently they have supported the schools programme, adapting schedules to attend schools across Hampshire every day.

In total, HANTSAR vaccinators helped deliver an estimated 17,000 vaccinations, and the whole team contributed more 9,000 hours to the vaccination programme.