THE workforce who were involved with the ‘UK Ventilator Challenge’ have been shortlisted for this St David’s Awards.

The project saw colleagues from Airbus, Siemens and AMRC build lifesaving equipment for the NHS at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

Staff worked around the clock to assemble ventilators which was equivalent of six month’s production in a single day.

The workforce have been nominated in the Innovation, Science and Technology category.

The St David Awards are Wales’s national awards, which celebrate the extraordinary achievements of the people of Wales.

Jack Sargeant MS, who nominated the team, said: "This is great news and hugely deserved. Those life savers who worked on the ventilator challenge performed nothing short of a miracle.

"As an engineer myself I understand the difficulty of completely switching production processes to do so quickly and to produce so many ventilators is mind blowing.

"I am so proud to have been able to nominate this group of workers."

An Airbus spokesman said: "We're delighted that the efforts of Airbus and Siemens staff who worked as part of the Ventilator Challenge UK consortium to produce 13,400 ventilators for the NHS has been recognised in this way. We'd also like to congratulate all the other worthy finalists in the 2021 St David's Awards."

Workers from Siemens and Airbus came together in March 2020 at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC Wales) in Broughton to transform the facility into an assembly line to produce medical ventilators on an unprecedented scale. Thanks to this collaboration a total of 13,437 ventilators were delivered to the NHS.

Unite the Union rep at Airbus Daz Reynolds said: "This is an incredibly talented and highly skilled workforce that I am proud to represent. The work that our members have done in making life saving ventilators should be recognised and I am delighted that we have been nominated for this award and thank Jack for his ongoing support and for nominating us."

Across North Wales, other organisations were nominated for the award.

These include:

Cherry Tree Care Home

During the first lockdown, nine members of staff at the Cherry Tree care home left their families for six weeks to move in with the residents at the care home in Coedpoeth, North Wales. The carers went above and beyond to protect others, sacrificing their time with their own families to provide reassurance to those in their care and to reduce the risk of infection.

Delwyn Derrick

Delwyn is the founder of Bellevue Football in North-east Wales - a multi-ethnic and inclusion focussed football club. Delwyn uses sport to bring people from diverse backgrounds together, including refugees, asylum seekers and those people with mental health issues or learning difficulties.

Denbighshire Dial a Ride

This volunteer service provides door-to-door transport to those in the community with a disability, impairment or those who cannot use public transport. During the pandemic the service has been a real life line to many in the community with volunteers also delivering prescriptions and doing people’s shopping.

Alun Edwards, Arwel Jones, Drew Nickless and Josh, Will and Ollie Brown

RNLI volunteers Arwel, Drew and Alun were helped by brothers Josh, Will and Ollie when two separate groups of people got into trouble in the sea at Aberdyfi on a Sunday afternoon last summer. Their quick action helped saved the lives of seven people.

Announcing the finalists, the First Minister said: "This year’s St David Awards finalists are an inspiring group of people that we are lucky to have living and working in Wales."

The full list of finalists can be seen here https://gov.wales/st-david-awards/2021-awards