"I wanted to come and go straight to work."
Bhasha Mukherjee has resumed her career as a doctor amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The beauty queen, who was crowned Miss England in 2019 returned to the UK from overseas charity work.
The 24-year-old took a career break as a junior doctor after competing in the Miss World pageant in December 2019.
Bhasha represented England at the London-based pageant after winning Miss England in August 2019.
She intended to pause her career and focus on humanitarian work until August 2020 after being invited by several charities to be an ambassador.
Bhasha explained: “I was invited to Africa, to Turkey, then to India, Pakistan and several other Asian countries to be an ambassador for various charity work.”
At the beginning of March 2020, Bhasha had been in India on behalf of Coventry Mercia Lions Club, a development and community charity for which she was ambassador.
They visited schools where they donated stationary. They also gave money to a home for abandoned girls.
Meanwhile, the Coronavirus situation in the UK worsened. Bhasha was receiving messages from colleagues at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Lincolnshire, telling her how difficult the situation was for them.
Bhasha then contacted the hospital’s management team, letting them know that she wanted to return to work.
She revealed that it felt wrong to be wearing her Miss England crown while people were dying and her colleagues were working so hard.
Bhasha told CNN: “When you are doing all this humanitarian work abroad, you’re still expected to put the crown on, get ready… look pretty.
“I wanted to come back home. I wanted to come and go straight to work.”
Bhasha, who was born in Kolkata but moved to Derby at the age of nine, added:
“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.”
“It was incredible the way the whole world was celebrating all key workers, and I wanted to be one of those, and I knew I could help.”
On April 1, 2020, Bhasha returned to the UK.
She worked with the British High Commission in Kolkata to get a flight from India to Frankfurt and then to London.
“There’s no better time for me to be Miss England and helping England at a time of need.”
Bhasha is currently self-isolating for up to two weeks until she can return to work as a doctor.
She specialises in respiratory medicine but doctors are being rotated to wherever they are needed.
Currently, the UK has over 55,000 confirmed cases and over 6,000 deaths.
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