Former Bo'ness Academy pupil receives BEM

Zoe Sayers (29) has been awarded the British Empire Medal for services to the community during the Covid pandemic in Kent.

She was nominated as a result of the voluntary work she undertook with the veterans charity, RE:ACT Disaster Response, whilst she continued to work as a teacher providing remote lessons.

Dovetailing her voluntary work with her working day as a geography teacher at the Sir Roger Manwood School in Sandwich, Zoe deployed on multiple tasks across Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

She also relocated to Plymouth to assist in the operation of a mass vaccination centre in the South-West.

Zoe said: “I’m very honoured to receive this award. In RE:ACT we deploy as a team and although the whole team can’t receive individual recognition, I am accepting this on their behalf for all the outstanding work done by every RE:ACT volunteer who deployed during the pandemic.

"Volunteering is something I have loved doing for over a decade. It’s part of who I am. What it means to me is that I am helping, in whatever way I can, to improve a situation for someone else.”

After leaving Bo’ness Academy, Zoe attended Plymouth University where she obtained a BSc Honours in Physical Geography with Geology, before moving to South Wales to complete an MSc in Disaster Management.

Having witnessed first hand the effects of a major environmental disaster in the Himalayas when she was 16, she committed herself to humanitarian voluntary work.

In 2017, Zoe was invited to join Team Rubicon UK, a disaster relief charity, now rebranded RE:Act Disaster Response.

Parents Owen and Sharon moved to France in 2015, as Zoe and her older sister Ashleigh, who both attended Deanburn Primary and then the Academy, had moved to Plymouth.

Owen said: “We’re delighted and a bit humbled by Zoe receiving this award, though we’re also aware this is just one part of a longer commitment Zoe makes to put herself out there to help others.”

Ashleigh also worked on the frontline during the Covid pandemic, being one of the final year paramedic students deemed sufficiently qualified to register in March 2020.