Royal Bolton Hospital healthcare assistant awarded British Empire Medal

Andrea Greenall, a healthcare assistant at the Royal Bolton Hospital, received notification that she had made the Queen's Birthday Honours list and at first thought it was a scam email.

The Kearsley resident, who has spent 24 years working in the NHS, at first didn't believe the notification she received was real and almost put it in the trash folder of her emails.

"I actually thought my letter was a spam email,” Andrea said as she looks back to receiving the official email from the Cabinet Office.

“The only thing which told me it might be more official was that it had my home address on it and it was at that point that I realised it was proper."

Andrea decided to get in contact with the Cabinet Office to double check and has since been officially awarded with her British Empire Medal on September 9.

After confirming the honour was legitimate she had to endure several weeks of secrecy before the award was officially announced.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she says.

“The hardest part ever was not being able to tell anybody, which for someone like me was very difficult. That was the hardest secret I have ever had to keep, I didn’t tell my family or friends.

"The only person who knew was my husband.”

Andrea received the British Empire Medal in recognition of her services to the NHS during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the first ever COVID mobile-swabbing team.

A spokesperson for Bolton NHS Foundation Trust said: "Congratulations to Andrea Greenall who has been awarded the British Empire Medal for meritorious civil service.

"Andrea is an outstanding colleague and provided high patient quality care in areas such as Pre-Operative Assessment and the Covid 19 Swabbing Service."

Andrea joined Maureen Lipman and Mary Berry in receiving the honour at the Queen's Birthday Honours.