Bernie Morris and her team at the Allcare pharmacy in Campile are the winners of GI’s Winter Well holiday competition

Since the start of the pandemic last March, so many individuals and teams across the wider Glanbia family have stood out, going above and beyond to ensure that our operations continued and the country’s food chain was supplied with vital dairy products. Back in December, we announced that we wanted to recognise these “unsung heroes” that have given so much of themselves during these unprecedented times. We asked you to nominate your “Hero”, with the lucky winner receiving a holiday voucher worth €1000 and the nominee receiving a €500 voucher. We received a great number of very deserving nominations but one person in particular stood out. Bernie Morris, Managing Pharmacist in the Campile Allcare Pharmacy, has been commended for her hard work and determination under the very worst of circumstances.

In the community of Campile, Co Wexford, Glanbia’s Allcare pharmacy dates back several decades and is a cornerstone of the local area. During the first lockdown, Campile had the highest number of cases of any town or village in Co Wexford. Under these challenging circumstances, Bernie has managed to keep the whole team in our pharmacy safe and Covid free since the start of the pandemic. Added to that, Bernie and her team kept Cherrywood Nursing Home supplied with critical care advice and medicines right throughout this period. Unfortunately, the nursing home had a very substantial number of Covid cases and a very large and distressing number of deaths. Many of the people who passed away were local to Campile and Bernie and the pharmacy team would have known them.

A lack of locum cover in the area meant Bernie worked continuously over many weeks without a day off. Both her and her team went above and beyond to maintain the highest level of service and to ensure the pharmacy remained open to service the wider community of South Wexford. They also teamed up with local volunteers to deliver medicine to elderly people cocooning and to people with underlying health problems to protect them from the risk of community transmission.

One of our nominees recalled meeting Bernie on one particular day. She was on her way back from the nursing home and had met three hearses, an ambulance, a helicopter and a paramedic team. She described it as a “warzone”.

We hope you’ll agree that Bernie is the very deserving winner of the Winter Well Holiday competition.

Commenting on her win, Bernie said: “A heartfelt thank you to all that voted and picked me as their winner. I am truly humbled as I’m very aware that there are many Covid heroes lurking in every division and domain of the organisation.”

In an added act of gratitude, those who nominated Bernie have insisted on sharing the second prize of €500 among the rest of the Campile pharmacy team. Thanks to Brian Molloy (Agri Branch Manager New Ross) and Robert Kehoe (Agri Area Retail Manager), who both nominated Bernie for this generous gesture!