Wales international Jamie Roberts has volunteered to help the National Health Service fight against corona virus.

Doctor Jamie has returned from South Africa, where he has been playing for Stormers and has volunteered with the Cardiff and Vale Health Board.

The centre, who has 94 Wales caps, completed his medical degree from Cardiff University in 2013.

“Life has changed significantly over the last few weeks from a rugby player to be doing this role,” said Roberts.

“Professional sport takes a back seat in these periods of an unprecedented public health crisis.”

Roberts explained how his new role came about and says he will not be involved in the medical process.

Honorary role

“I have been sitting on a medical degree for quite a long time and thought why not try and help out here in Cardiff?,” said Roberts.

“I thought I would volunteer because it was important so I have taken an honorary role with the innovation team here.

“The NHS has a lot of opportunities for both skilled and unskilled workers to try and offer their services and they are still recruiting and that’s an important message to get across.

“My role is to support people where I can and I will probably end up doing some communications work and help promoting how much good work people are doing.

“The first few days have been amazing and just seeing how everyone is pulling together and working hard for the cause each in their own little way.

“It is a huge crisis and the challenge is there in our faces and we are only going to solve it together as a collective.

“Our lifestyles have been turned on their heads overnight and there are a lot of challenges ahead.

“It will take the discipline and resilience of everyone to overcome it.”

“I was at the Principality Stadium on Monday afternoon and that was surreal,” Roberts told BBC Sport Wales.

“I walked into the media room, which has been turned into a kind of war operations room with workers from all different facets of society.

“It is only right we hope for the best, but sensibly prepare for the worst.

“That is why the field hospital at the stadium is being built and in some ways we hope that work is in vain and you don’t have to use all the facilities.

“What I have seen is just how dedicated the staff are here and how hard they are working in difficult circumstances in every facet.

“Some staff members will maybe have relatives or friends who are suffering or even grieving and their ability to work so hard through this is so impressive and humbling.”

Jamie has also started a blog to details his experiences during this time, its sure to be a very interesting insight into his daily life as a NHS Volunteer https://docrobertsblog.wordpress.com/

Link to original article https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/52205287