Meet the Warwick man who has come out of retirement to help in the fight against Coronavirus at new 'mega lab' in Leamington

Tony Laverick, 69, last worked to tackle a potentially fatal illness in the 1980s.

But on February 15 he will take up a role as a laboratory technician at the new state-of-the-art laboratory in the south of Leamington.

Mr Laverick, who was born in South Shields, Tyne and Wear and has lived in Warwick for 35 years, said: "I am very much looking forward to taking up the position.

"On seeing that Leamington was designated as the site for a new Coronavirus mega lab and that they were asking for people to be considered for recruitment I immediately applied.

"Even though it’s some considerable time since I worked in a laboratory, I knew that I still had the skills required and was very keen to do my bit to help in the effort against this terrible pandemic."

Tony worked in the field of microbiology for 15 years and gained a Fellowship of the Institute of Biomedical Science in 1980.

In the last six years of his health service career, from 1978 to 1984, he worked at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham researching into Legionnaires’ Disease when it was newly discovered.

He co-authored several papers on the subject which were published in both British and American scientific journals.

He later changed career and went into local government as an emergency planning officer.

in this role he worked first for Buckinghamshire County Council, then Warwickshire County Council and finally Bedfordshire County Council where he was appointed county emergency planning officer heading up a small team of specialists.

Emergency planning officers enable councils to assist the emergency services in responding to major incidents.

These can range from severe weather conditions including snow and flooding to tanker spills on major road routes to train and aeroplane crashes.

His final job in local government was as the head of risk management for the latter of the aforementioned county councils.

He took what he thought was early retirement in 2003.

For more information about jobs at the new mega lab in Leamington click here.