Lecturer highly commended at antibiotic guardian awards

The awards, which took place last night, Thursday 26 November, champions organisations and individuals who are helping to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AR). 

In 2019, Clare produced an activity pack, The Antibiotic Guardian Youth Badge, to teach young people about antimicrobial resistance. 

She piloted the badge at local Cubs and Scouts groups and in early 2020, Clare took the project to Uganda, where 89 school children pledged to become antibiotic guardians. 

Clare is delighting to have been highly commended in the multi-country collaboration category. 

She said: ‘This has given me a further platform to share with others the importance of AR and to further highlight that we all have a role to play in protecting antibiotics, whether we are young or old. 

‘I have been working with University of Salford for a while now and this is my first academic role. This project has afforded me the opportunity to achieve many "firsts": the first time I have been involved in research, the first time I have been abroad for work, the first time I have produced an academic poster, the first time I have been able to co-author a paper for publication, to name but a few.  And to be able to achieve all these firsts in an area that I am passionate about is such an added bonus!’

In Uganda, Clare worked with school children to make their own microbes from homemade playdough and learn about hand hygiene. The children were also taught how AR occurs, using ‘bacteria’ and their very own supervillain cloaks.

Overall, Clare described the experience as empowering.

‘The children were enthusiastic and were credits to their schools. They all made a pledge to go home and tell their families about one thing they had learned – which was handwashing. That was brilliant, as handwashing is the most important thing for preventing antimicrobial resistance.’

Find out more about Clare’s time in Uganda.