Miss England returns as a doctor for coronavirus pandemic

The current holder of the Miss England title has set aside her crown so she can return to her job as a doctor during the coronavirus crisis.

Bhasha Mukherjee returned to the UK from charity work in India to rejoin her colleagues at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Lincolnshire.

Mukherjee represented England at the pageant after winning Miss England in 2019.

Mukherjee told Sky News that while the work she was doing in India was important, she felt her time and skills would be of greater use to the NHS during the coronavirus epidemic.

“I felt that my services, given the training that I’ve had – I’m a trained doctor – my services would be much more useful in a hospital,” she said.

“I’m not belittling the work, the charity work that I was doing, but in a way, you know, this is what I’ve been trained to do, so I wanted to come back and do that.

“Initially when we were doing all this good work and the happy smiles – we went to so many homes for orphanages and little girls who’d been abandoned and things like that… but towards the end of the trip… I did not feel like wearing my crown. I did not feel like attending the events.”