Covid vaccine: Nurse, 103, who lived through Spanish flu has jab

A former nurse who lived through the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic has received her Covid-19 vaccine.

Hilda Richards - now 103 - who cared for soldiers injured in the Battle of Dunkirk, has lived for the past year at Wrexham's Gwern Alyn care home.

The great-grandmother was given the coronavirus jab by medics following in her footsteps.

After having her vaccine Ms Richards said: "I feel good after it. It went well. I'm glad I've had the vaccine.

"Having been a nurse, things like this remind me a bit of the work I used to do."

She was born on 10 November 1917, during World War One and just three months before the Spanish flu outbreak.

Like coronavirus, it spread around the globe claiming millions of lives.

It ended in spring 1920, almost exactly a century before Covid-19 took hold.

Ms Richards is one of the few to have lived through both pandemics.

"I was very young when Spanish flu was around, just after the First World War," she said.

"But people used to talk about it when I was growing up. They reckoned it had killed as many people as the war itself.

"Sadly, what's happening now is a bit similar with this awful virus."

It is estimated as many as 500 million people were infected by Spanish flu.

More than 50 million are thought to have died during the pandemic's four waves.

Most of Ms Richards' time at the care home has been under coronavirus lockdown as she arrived in February 2020.

She said: "I thought at first I was only coming here for a fortnight. But I've been here ever since.

Her family have been able to stay in touch, Ms Richards said.

"Even if I haven't been able to see my family, I've still been able to talk to them on the phone a lot," she said.

Ms Richards, a mother-of-three with four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, turned 103 last year.

A tot of whisky in her morning tea, she said, was the secret to a long life.

As well as looking after soldiers from Dunkirk - which she said was "an awful job but one I was privileged to do" - she worked at Wrexham General emergency hospital.

Gwern Alyn manager Cindy Clutton said: "It is a real privilege and a pleasure to provide care for Hilda. She's a wonderful woman."