Referees

Taylor looking to lend the NHS a hand

31 Mar 2020
Burnley FC v Leicester City - Premier League

Inspired by sister who is a doctor, Premier League referee volunteers to help health service in dealing with coronavirus

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Anthony Taylor is busy keeping fit for when the Premier League returns but before it does the referee aims to help his community meet the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

Taylor's sister is a doctor at a Manchester hospital so he is fully aware of the challenge being faced by workers on  the front line of the National Health Service (NHS).

"She is a consultant in acute medicine at a high-dependency unit and is having a very busy time of it at the moment," says the 41-year-old. "She is a very special individual for the work that she does.

"And she can't praise her team in the hospital highly enough; the, nurses, support staff, they all do a fantastic job. But they're going to need help."

Answering the call

So Taylor is one of more than half a million people who have answered the Government's call for people to come forward and help the NHS.

"There was an appeal that went out the other night for 250,000 volunteers, which is aimed at delivering medication and shopping to the two million people who have been told to stay at home," he says.

"They need people to take supplies between hospitals so I volunteered on the Government website. Hopefully, that should be in place in the next couple of days and I'll be able to start helping out."

Charity patron

Taylor is already committed to helping society through being patron for the education charity Prison? Me? No Way!.

The charity looks to help steer people away from a life of crime. 

"Our main focus is to get young people, usually younger than 18, so a lot of the work we do is in high schools and primary schools and educating young people about the consequences of crime," says the former prison officer.

"In the last five years there has been a huge increase from knife crime, online dangers so we have a specific workshop we deliver in schools. Unfortunately, with the schools now closed that work has been impacted."

Taylor, though, is doing everything he can to help them to re-open and resume his work both on and off the pitch, something he is keeping fit for with the help of his dog, Monty!

See: Taylor working hard to keep up his fitness

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