The good news of 2024

We’re not just pharmacists

C+D has met pharmacists over the past year who excel just as much outside of their profession in their hobbies.

We’ve met professional dancers, luxury chocolatiers, and ice-skaters, but one of the most intriguing has been speaking to a beauty pageant finalist in the Ms Great Britain category.

42-year-old Emily Bond is a clinical prescribing pharmacist in Havant, but after a divorce she has found her community through pageantry as she was “missing a little bit of sparkle” in her life.

Alongside fundraising and wanting to help other women and girls, the hobby has become “life changing” for Bond.

Another great story worth mentioning is the mystery pharmacist who has written a widely praised novel ‘Spectra Attraction’ that features a “series of uplifting, heartwarming and racy encounters” coupled with supernatural themes.

A woman with grey hair smiling at the camera — Betty Pritchard started working in 1951 at the (now closed) Crindau Chemist

“I love working”

Pharmacy is often a profession for a life for many, and we’ve seen our fair share of long-standing pharmacists retire this year including one after a 44 year long stint.

But one pharmacy manager’s retirement is a testament to exactly why those working in community pharmacy love their job.

91-year-old Betty Pritchard retired in November after 73 years working in the Newport area, but she says pharmacy has been “all I thought about” as she loved serving her local community.

Her retirement won’t slow her down too much as she has already been making jars of her renowned homemade pickles to order.

Is pharmacy brat-coded?

The brat summer trend quickly swept the UK (or at least those who listened to Charli XCX’s new album) as a gateway for people to channel their silliness amid a summer of turmoil that saw a brand-new UK government arrive, Trump survive an assassination attempt, and another Euro 2024 nightmare for England men’s football team.

But a TikTok video ranking Charli XCX’s ‘Brat’ album to Europe’s finest bratty energy LED pharmacy signs helped us understand that pharmacy may have always been ‘brat-coded’ with its green signs and some of the animations displayed on them.

One UK pharmacist wants a more “progressive approach” in the UK as “it doesn’t make the pharmacy look like a brothel or Las Vegas”.

woman behind a counter dispensing drugs — Jennifer Le Grand led a team of twenty-five pharmacists in Paris

On the global stage

One of the summer’s biggest events was the return of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, with Paris hosting this time around.

And we exclusively spoke to the lead pharmacist who ran the Olympic Village pharmacy in the 24/7 polyclinic for three months, saying “it was amazing” to do it and she would do it again.

She even had some of the world’s best athletes bring her cake to say thanks for the help she gave them during the games.

And on the big screen

As well as pharmacy taking part on the biggest sporting stage of the year, one independent pharmacy in Hemel Hempstead featured in on the year’s biggest blockbuster movies.

Gadebridge Pharmacy is featured as Portobello Chemist in ‘Paddington in Peru’, the third instalment of the Paddington Bear film series that was released in November.

It’s become the talk of the town with locals recognising the pharmacy where Paddington bought sun cream and sunglasses, and Downtown Abbey star Hugh Bonneville acted in the scene.

Pharmacy meets video games

The fun aspects of the pharmacy profession have also been brought into the sphere of video games too.

Game developer Pani Sphikas has created the Antibiotic Space Invader game where you need to destroy AMR with the right amount of antibiotics.

And BA Game Design students at University Centre Grimsby worked with a local NHS Foundation trust to produce Pharmacy Rush, a game that demonstrates how to look after virtual patients in a ward or at a dispensary, to help drive recruitment for the profession.

Are you as good at being a pharmacist in these games as you are in real-life?! The games are available to check out yourself.

The sector proves its business savvy

Pharmacy is of course not without its entrepreneurs, and one A-Level student used his GCSE summer job as a pharmacy dispenser to good use.

Arvin Abdollahzadeh created an efficient SMS feature for community pharmacies by programming prescription barcodes to be read by his software.

The data attached to the prescription also has patient’s mobile number, so pharmacies can now text patients within a few seconds, rather than previously wasting hours doing this, and it’s helped contractors maximise their profits by automating this part of the dispensing.

And pharmacist Amina Khan appeared on Lord Alan Sugar’s TV show The Apprentice this year, with C+D chatting to her about her journey from pharmacy to running a seven-figure skincare business.

A man holding a plaque celebrating him being a freeman of london — Dajani: “It’s not lost to me there’s only 2000 of us"

An honour and a privilege

It is always fantastic to see so many pharmacists be rewarded for their hard work, with C+D often reporting on these successes such as with one Hull pharmacist winning a NHS lifetime achievement award after being nominated by his local MP and patient.

But one of the more unusual accolades we’ve seen is Sultan ‘Sid’ Dajani be awarded the ‘Freedom of the City of London’ in September for his services to pharmacy, an award that royal family members, prime ministers, and international leaders such as Nelson Mandela have also received.

Dajani said “it’s extremely humbling to be in that sort of company … it just doesn’t sink in”.

Kids add colour to premises

And in September, Anika, 12, from Leicester, Patrick, 8, from Newark, and Olivia, 3, from Halifax, were selected as the winners of a Well Pharmacy poster competition.

The selected designs were to help promote blood pressure awareness and encourage people to get tests.

Do you have any good news stories you want to share with community pharmacy? Let us know in the comments.