A junior doctor who won the title of Miss England in 2019, Bhasha Mukherjee, is trading in her crown to help out on the frontlines of the ongoing coronavirus crisis as an NHS doctor.
After winning the crown, the 24-year-old planned to put her medical career on hold so that she could travel the world for various humanitarian efforts.
But according to Mukherjee, it didn’t feel right for her to continue wearing her Miss England crown — even if she was performing humanitarian work — while her colleagues were risking their lives treating coronavirus patients back home.
Four weeks into her ambassadorship in India on behalf of Coventry Mercia Lions Club, where she donated stationery to schools and gave money to a home for abandoned girls, news broke that the coronavirus situation was worsening back home in the UK.
“When you are doing all this humanitarian work abroad, you’re still expected to put the crown on, get ready…look pretty,” she told CNN.
“I wanted to come back home. I wanted to come and go straight to work.”
Mukherjee continued: “I felt a sense of, this is what I’d got this degree for and what better time to be part of this particular sector than now?"
Mukherjee is self-isolating for one to two weeks until she can return to work as a doctor. She specializes in respiratory medicine but said doctors are currently being rotated to wherever they are needed.
According to her, “There’s no better time for me to be Miss England and helping England at a time of need.”
The fact that she couldn't do both simultaneously tells you everything you need to know about beauty pageants and their relevance.
