At Frost we almost cried at this amazing video of 106-year-old Virginia McLaurin dancing with joy when she met the Obamas at The White House. Her happiness at a black President being in the White House is so touching and says a lot about how far we have come. The First Lady is graceful and tells McLaurin, ‘I want to be like you when I grow up’. The White House shared the touching video of McLaurin fulfilling her dream of visiting the White House and meeting President Obama for Black History Month. She said she was ‘so happy’ to have lived to see a black president of the United States.
Tag Archives: black history month
What are you doing for Black History Month?
As the UK enters Black History month, NHS Choices, the national website of the NHS is putting the spotlight on black health heroes at www.nhs.uk/blackhistorymonth. The siteprofiles members of the African and Caribbean community who are improving the health and lives of others. NHS Choices also sheds light on conditions that are more likely to affect the black population, www.nhs.uk/blackhealth.
Amongst the celebrated health heroes is Dr Tunji Lasoye, an A&E consultant and surgeon in an inner city hospital, who often encounters victims of knife crimes. Also featured is Rudolph Isaacs, a rare-type blood donor whose donations are especially vital to people who suffer with sickle cell anaemia, which affects the black community more than others. The work of the trailblazer Nola Ishmael OBE, is also acknowledged for her contributions to nursing.
According to recent statistics from the NHS Information Centre, the numbers of BME (black and minority ethnic) hospital doctors are on the rise. There has been an 73% increase of BME hospital doctors, from 22,775 in 2000 to 39,476 in 2010.[1]
Barry Mussenden OBE, Deputy Director for Equality and Partnerships at the Department of Health says; “Black and minority ethnic people have contributed greatly to the NHS for over 60 years since the Windrush era, this recognition by NHS Choices shows the appreciation to all those inspirational health heroes throughout the UK.”
To further help ethnic minority communities to get reliable health information, NHS Choices has now incorporated a translation function into the site. This enables visitors to read most pages in more than 50 languages.
For more information about other health heroes, visit the NHS Choices website at www.nhs.uk/blackhistorymonth