From Co Tyrone farm to Vogue cover star for midwife Rachel Millar

The 24-year-old midwife from Coagh is one of three frontline workers based in London who will feature on the cover of next month’s British Vogue.

Photographer Jamie Hawkesworth captured the trio of women – Rachel features along with a King’s Cross supermarket worker and a London train driver – for a 20-page portfolio for the fashion magazine.

“They represent the millions of people in the UK who, at the height of the pandemic, put on their uniforms and went to help,” said Vogue’s editor-in-chief Edward Enninful.

In an interview with Sky News Rachel, a former pupil of Cookstown High School, said: “I heard a rumour that British Vogue were coming to take portraits of some of us so one of our management just lined us up and everyone got a couple of photos taken.

“I was looking after a labouring woman. I came out of the room to get an epidural top-up and saw there was a photographer here. I was herded it to get a photo taken, then I was straight back into the room. It was all very random, it wasn’t planned at all.”

Rachel, who has worked as a community midwife at Homerton Hospital in east London for almost three years, said: “A few weeks down the line I heard that it was going to be on the cover. I had to keep it quiet for about a month.”

When she was finally able to share the news with family and friends she said: “Everyone is really proud to see someone from the NHS on there.

“It’s not about me, it’s about my colleagues and the wider NHS family that have had so much recognition over the last couple of months which has been absolutely incredible and it’s kept us all going when it could have been a time of low morale.”

She told British Vogue that her fascination with pregnancy and birth was sparked early, when, growing up on a farm in Co Tyrone, she witnessed her grandparents doing lambing season every year.

Early in the pandemic Rachel had her bike stolen.

“If you’ve ever watched Call The Midwife, you’ll know the importance of two wheels to an east London midwife, especially when we’re desperately trying to avoid public transport,” she told Vogue.

Her friends at the hospital rallied and one raised £500 online to help her get back on the road, while a retweet from another colleague led to a local company donating a brand new electric bike to her.

She said: “To say that I’m proud of my work family, and my wider community’s response to this pandemic, is an understatement.”

This October Rachel is hoping to run the rescheduled London Marathon to fundraise for Sands (Stillbirth and neonatal death charity).