Miss England 2019 is setting aside her crown to fight the COVID-19 pandemic as a doctor

Miss England 2019 is temporarily hanging up her crown to return to her career as a doctor amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Before participating in the Miss World pageant in December 2019, Bhasha Mukherjee had worked as a junior doctor specializing in respiratory medicine. The 24-year-old beauty queen chose to halt her humanitarian work in Africa, Turkey, India, Pakistan, and other Asian countries to resume her work as a doctor in the UK.

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Proudly representing all healthcare professionals around the world that silently, invisibly make magic happen for so many people and their families ! #NHS #missworld2019 @missworld @mobstar_official

A post shared by Dr Bhasha Mukherjee (@bhasha05) on Nov 21, 2019 at 1:50pm PST

Bhasha shared with CNN she was invited to be an ambassador for several charities scheduled until August this year. However, she felt bad wearing a crown while her UK colleagues are struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last month, Miss England 2019 was an ambassador of the Coventry Mercia Lions Club in India for four weeks. There, she donated supplies to schools and financial support to a local home for abandoned girls. While she was there, Bhasha learned from former colleagues from Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Eastern England that the pandemic situation in her home country was getting worse and the virus was spreading rapidly.

Finding out the seriousness of COVID-19 in the UK, the beauty queen immediately contacted the hospital’s management and expressed her interest in returning to work.

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You ever felt the effect of DIVINE INTERVENTION? Like someone up there is protecting you and magically makes everything come together in the end after numerous hurdles. That's how today felt. This photo has been captured on a phone by the talented @soulful_s , a true singh, who drove 4 hours each way to my hospital, and captured everything within 1 hour. This gentleman made my vision a reality and that for me was actually emotional. Thank you @tamararashford.ox you loyal, I like you ( – DJ Khaled) I couldn't have done this without you girl – that's some Scorpio love right there. Thank you @bitaayazdani and @aishaaa_aa my beauties and all the fantastic staff at my hospital for making my day so special today. There's a reason why you all were placed in my life at this precise junction of my life. What is beauty without a purpose. Love you my precious NHS and all the heroes that make this system a success. Love you pilgrim hospital – my work and worship XXX @missenglandnews @beautywithapurposeofficial @missworld

A post shared by Dr Bhasha Mukherjee (@bhasha05) on Oct 29, 2019 at 3:27pm PDT

She didn’t want to wear a crown while her colleagues were risking their own lives and hundreds of people were dying. Miss England said:

“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 believes there is no better time for her to be Miss England and help her home country than now.

She felt in her heart this is what she got her doctors’ degree for. The beauty queen knew this is the right time for her to be part of this particular sector. She added:

“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.”

Since Bhasha has returned to the UK, she was required to self-isolate for one to two weeks.

This requirement was mandatory due to the COVID-19 protocols about people entering the country. After her quarantine period ends, she can return to work as a doctor at the Pilgrim Hospital.

As of Tuesday, April 7th, the recorded coronavirus cases in the UK are 51,608, with more than 5,000 deaths.