WORTHY Farm - home of the Glastonbury Festival - is hosting an extra special private party today (September 25).

Since December 2020, the local vaccination programme has worked hard to vaccinate the people of Somerset.

While a team of dedicated NHS staff have led on the response, none of this would have been achieved without the commitment and support from an army of volunteers who have been involved in the programme since the start.

And to recognise the contribution of these wonderful volunteers, the Shape Mendip primary care network (PCN), decided to do something special.

Volunteers, vaccinators, clinical leads, local NHS, council and site staff and will gather at Worthy Farm for an evening of music and celebration.

The venue, which was kindly donated by the Founder of Glastonbury Festival, Michael Eavis, will be a fitting place for the team to celebrate and it is hoped that Michael will even pop by during the evening to say a few words to the volunteers.

Emma Fynn, Mendip PCN project manager and Covid vaccination operations lead, said: “I wanted to create a way for everyone to come together so we could recognise the invaluable contribution the volunteers have made to the programme.

“To date the Shape Mendip site has delivered over 55,000 vaccinations and this number is growing all the time.

"This amazing achievement has only been possible because of the incredible support received from the local community.

“From marshals and administrators to vaccinators, our army of volunteers who are made up of furloughed council staff, local community members, students, retired GPs as well as other medical staff have worked tirelessly to support the roll-out and ensure local people can get vaccinated.”

This event comes at a pertinent time as the biggest and most successful vaccination programme in the NHS starts rolling out the next stage, delivering Covid booster jabs to those in eligible groups within Somerset.