Barts Health staff light up Piccadilly Circus for mosaic picture project
The People’s Picture are calling out for your pictures, videos and stories to create a giant interactive rainbow mosaic of ‘hope’ made up of thousands of NHS staff, key workers, carers combined with the nation’s pictures.
The picture project was launched at London Piccadilly Lights this morning (22 June) for a 10-minute domination and a week-long reveal, which featured three colleagues working in ICU at The Royal London Hospital who contributed to the project.
Dr Josh Michaels, Hannah Uy and Nancy Faulkner had been redeployed to the Itensive Care Unit (ICU) at The Royal London Hospital to work on the NHS frontline during the pandemic.
The mosaic will highlight some of the stories from across the nation including doctors, nurses and other key NHS workers throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
Once finished it will become a giant interactive online mosaic for the NHS’ 72nd birthday on the 5th July and will extend nationally with multiple artworks.
Landsec and Ocean Outdoor have collaborated to donate the iconic screen building upon their community engagement programme which has continued throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Both Josh and Nancy, a senior sister at The Royal London Hospital have been redeployed from their normal roles with the ear, nose, and throat team (ENT), to support the ICU in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Josh Michaels, surgical trainee at The Royal London, said: “I’m a surgical trainee who volunteered my services as a doctor to help care for some of the sickest COVID patients in our hospital.
"Many people found the work incredibly difficult but thanks to the support from our brilliant ITU nurses, I and many others never felt too out of depth.
"During this time, I was contacted by The People’s Picture, asking to use some of my pictures for a campaign supporting front line staff and depicting their stories throughout lockdown. When I was contacted last weekend to say that I was selected be a main feature on their display in Piccadilly Circus, I was over the moon."
Hannah Uy said: "Being a frontliner during the pandemic is really challenging. The fear that we are feeling since we are mostly exposed to the sick patients.
“However, seeing our patients recover is such a fulfilling experience."
Josh Michaels has raised more than £13,000 for Barts Charity as part of his Covid-19 appeal. He added:
"I hope this picture project and the continued support I’ve received helps me to reach my fundraising target of £15,000 for Barts Charity Covid-19 emergency appeal. We are so close to this target and could use all the help possible to make sure we achieve it!
“I have expanded the appeal by creating The Quarantine Jukebox – an open forum where viewers can make song requests that I then play on piano for them to encourage more donations,” he said in an interview with Barts Health.
“I’m currently in the process of working with a few musicians to help widen our audience reach.”
You can find out more about Josh’s fundraising and donate to his Covid-19 appeal by visiting his JustGiving page.
To take part in this project, you can submit images to the People’s Picture here.
