Belfast’s Fiona recognised as Covid unsung hero by The Princess Royal

A Belfast-based product design engineer has been announced as the winner of a WISE Covid Unsung Heroes award in a ceremony held at Windsor Castle and presented by The Princess Royal.

Fiona Bennington, head of entrepreneurship and growth at Catalyst science park, was awarded the AWE Responsive Hero award in recognition of her work combating the shortage of PPE in Belfast through the creation of a consortium of local companies.

The group of firms adopted their production to create what was subsequently described as the ‘Hero Shield’ at a critical juncture of the pandemic.

Organised by leading community interest company WISE (Women in Science and Engineering), of whom The Princess Royal is a long-standing patron, the awards shine a light on women whose actions and brilliance have helped improve lives and communities during the pandemic, but who may have – until now – received little recognition.

Celebrating a variety of Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) roles, backgrounds and industries, the awards included high-level endorsement from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and were judged by leading industry voices. The judges included Professor Dame Sue Hill, chief scientific officer for England and senior responsible officer for NHS Genomics, and Ricky Martin, member of the Royal Society for Chemistry and winner of the BBC’s The Apprentice.

Fiona’s initiative ensured that, through unprecedented cross-border coordination and financing efforts, these partners were able to repurpose their supply chains and ensure a timely delivery of the face shields during the crisis.

The face shields were then distributed to hospitals and front-line workers during the first wave of the pandemic in March 2020.

Fiona continued: “It was a truly humbling and inspiring experience to meet with the other women who were finalists for this award, the judges must have had such a challenge when making their deliberations!

“We heard the stories of the great work everyone in the room carried out often very much behind the scenes to support the efforts to prevent the spread of covid, raise awareness of how to protect each other and save lives.

“Princess Anne spoke to my group about how we should not hide our achievements, but share with others what Women in STEM have been able to do to support the national and international pandemic efforts as this could help to inspire women and girls everywhere, to realise that in STEM we can make a real positive difference in the world. Honestly, having met the other ladies I was completely shocked when my name was called out as a winner.

“As an engineer, I wasn’t best placed to create vaccines, or medicines, but I did have skills to help in a different way and was able to design and pull together a not-for-profit consortia from all over the north and south of Ireland to create and distribute PPE locally. We then freely shared the approved and compliant designs with Engineers without Borders and the HeroShield is being manufactured in third world countries where the resources were not in place to buy from international suppliers.

“We didn’t take a penny from the project, and instead when we won an NHS contract for HeroShield, we handed it over to the two big partners who offered a lot of staff time, resources and know-how to Denroy and Crossen Engineering. This helped them to keep staff on and keep their lines running during uncertain times. They paid us a portion of the profits to offer to charities locally to support the mental health and wellbeing of our NHS workers. This was not by any means a solo effort, many, many people helped to save lives in this way, but I am glad to have played a part in making it happen. If there is a takeaway from this whole experience it is that ordinary people have the power to make a difference!”

Other winners of the awards included:

Dr Amy Thomas, Tech Award Winner (sponsored by Pfizer)

Dr Anna Young, New Educator Award (sponsored by PA Consulting)

Ming Tang, Data Solution Award Winner (sponsored by IQVIA)

Tolulope Oke, Inclusion and Diversity Award Winner (sponsored by Hyper Recruitment Solutions)

Susan McDonald, Community Champion Award Winner (sponsored by the NHS)

Kay Hussain, chief executive of WISE, said: “It has been an honour and a privilege to witness the work of these amazing women over the last two years. Each nominee has made a superb contribution during the pandemic and we truly wish that we could have celebrated them all as winners.

“Since being appointed CEO of WISE in the height of the pandemic, I have been so impressed by the tenacity, excellence and vision demonstrated by so many women in STEM, and none more so than those recognised last night. We want to personally thank each of them for the contributions they have made to our society.”

Dame Sue Hill DBE, chief scientific officer for England and lead ambassador at WISE, commented: “These women have made an astounding impact during the pandemic, going above and beyond to help keep our population and communities safe during a truly challenging time.

“As an ambassador for WISE, I am continuously amazed at the achievements of the women we represent, and hope that these awards will go some small way in demonstrating our gratitude for their efforts.”

Sponsors for the awards included the NHS, PA Consulting, Pfizer, Hyper Recruitment Solutions, IQVIA and AWE.

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