A RETIRED nurse who is now proprietor of an Ilkley care agency has come back as a volunteer to help with Covid-19 vaccine roll-out.

David Crabtree, 67, is proprietor Crabtree Care Homes Services Limited, which runs two nursing homes and and one home care agency in the Bradford district, including Sunningdale at Manningham, The Raikes Residential Home for the Elderly in Silsden and Ladies in Waiting, a domiciliary care agency in Ilkley.

"I've seen the deaths that Covid causes in the care homes, which is why I volunteered to come back as a vaccinator to help people across the district and to re-enforce the message for people to get the vaccine.

"We started losing people to Covid-19 back in March last year, so even though 95 per cent of staff and 98 per cent of residents in the care homes across the country have received the vaccine, we still need to stick to protocols and wear masks and other PPE.

"We very fortunate that residents and staff in care homes across the district have now been done," added Mr Crabtree. "Their chances of death due to Covid will be diminished."

Mr Crabtree started as a cadet nurse at Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's Hospitals in Bradford 50 years ago.

He then trained as a registered mental nurse between 1972 and 1975 at Scalebor Park psychiatric hospital in Burley-in-Wharfedale before becoming a staff and charge nurse at Lingfield Mount in Bradford.

He stopped working for the NHS in 1986 and opened Crabtree's Care Homes as a family business in 1993.

After completing a one-day refresher training course on Monday, on Tuesday Mr Crabtree joined Karen Dawber, head of nursing at BRI, who said it is "absolutely essential" to get people to help volunteer with the vaccine roll-out.

She said: "There are lots and lots of roles for lots of people. You don't have to have clinical expertise.

"We want people to be vaccinated, then have people to help marshal them and help with admin and clerical.

"We're facing one of the biggest challenges ever. We're looking at vaccinating half a million people just in Bradford city and the surrounding areas.

"They will actually have two jabs each, so that's like a million people to vaccinate over the next year.

"The more help we have the better. We'd really welcome that."

Mr Crabtree also encouraged people to make sure they turn up to receive their vaccination when it has been booked because he said "it's the only way we're going to win the battle against this disease".

"It's all about encouraging people to get one of the vaccines as well as encouraging retired nurses to help with the roll-out.

"We're part of the relief brigade for NHS staff who have been working so hard.

"I'm ready to be deployed wherever they need me within the district.

"You can ring BRI and Airedale and ask how you enroll," he added.