Covid: Margaret... meet Margaret
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"Hello Margaret, meet Margaret."
The first person in the UK to receive a coronavirus vaccine has celebrated by finally being able to meet the giraffe named after her!
Margaret Keenan, a granny from Northern Ireland, was the first to be injected with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in December 2020.
That day marked a key point in the race to slow down the coronavirus pandemic by giving people a vaccine to try to help them fight off the serious illness of Covid-19.
In the UK, as of 13 May, more than 35 million people have had at least one dose of a Covid vaccination.
To honour Margaret, she was treated to a unique encounter this week when she met a giraffe calf named after her at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo.
The 91-year-old met her five-month-old namesake alongside the giraffe calf's mum Luna and the rest of their herd.
The reticulated giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata) was born at the UK's largest zoo on 8 December, the same day Margaret got her vaccine in Coventry.
We are so delighted that the two very special Margarets have finally been able to meet face-to-face. One is a breeding success story for an endangered species, while the other is the first person to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, but both Margarets remind us of a brighter future after a difficult year.