Birthday Honours 2020: Surgeon who comforted dying patients becomes MBE

A surgeon who sat with dying patients when relatives were unable to visit during the coronavirus outbreak on the Isle of Man has been honoured in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Peter Duffy said he felt "very lucky" to have been awarded the MBE.

The consultant urologist also served meals and changed beds at Noble's Hospital during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Health Minister David Ashford, who helped to spearhead the island's pandemic response, also becomes MBE.

Community volunteer Gareth Hinge, charity fundraiser Thelma Lomax and lifeboat volunteer Mark Kenyon were all bestowed the same honour.

When cancer surgery on the island was reduced to only emergency procedures during the height of the pandemic, Mr Duffy took to the wards to help with day-to-day tasks.

The 58-year-old said receiving the honour was "very unexpected" as he was "just one of hundreds, possibly thousands, of people who put themselves in harm's way to care for patients".

"I was very humbled to be picked out of all of those people," he added.

During the island's lockdown period, Mr Duffy spent time sitting with and reading to patients who were reaching the end of their lives.

After reading about a teenager in England whose parents could not be by his side when he died because of the pandemic, he said he was determined he would "not leave somebody to die on their own on the Isle of Man".

Mr Duffy was awarded the honour for his "outstanding support to the Isle of Man during the COVID-19 pandemic".

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