Junior Doctor and Miss England winner Dr Bhasha Mukherjee is set to arrive back in the UK tomorrow morning after getting stuck in India during the coronavirus pandemic.
Like many other Britons in the country Dr Mukherjee, from Derby, found herself unable to get home when the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi cancelled flights and imposed a country-wide lockdown.
Desperate to get back to work and join colleagues at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Lincolnshire, in the fight against coronavirus, 24-year-old Dr Mukherjee made an appeal to the Foreign Office to get her home.
British Deputy High Commissioner Nick Low (left) secured Dr Bhasha Mukherjee (right) a flight back to the UK via Frankfurt today
After seeing her appeal on the MailOnline British Deputy High Commissioner Nick Low secured the keen Doctor a flight back to the UK via Frankfurt, where she is currently waiting for her connecting flight.
The doctor had been visiting India to carry out humanitarian work as part of a travelling career break.
As the outbreak of coronavirus worsened in early March she travelled to her aunt’s house in Kolkata to self-isolate.
Bhasha in her ‘scrubs’ while working as a junior doctor, before her humanitarian campaign
Deputy High Commissioner Mr Low said: ‘Bhasha was in good spirits at Kolkata Airport this morning and looking forward to getting back.
‘She’ll need to do the mandatory COVID-19 training for healthcare professionals before returning to frontline duties at the Pilgrim Hospital in Boston.’
Adding: ‘We got fifteen Brits out this morning, including an ex-British soldier whom I was able to get on the plane at twenty minutes’ notice.’
Bhasha the beauty queen feeling ecstatic as she is crowned Miss England in August last year
Dr Mukherjee said she had been feeling ‘guilty’ hearing about NHS staff working 13-hour shifts and decided to book the first flight home, but as her plane home was about to take off on the runway in Delhi the Indian PM made the decision to ground all planes.
Speaking last week before her repatriation Dr Mukherjee said: ‘Everything started to change very rapidly. I started getting emails from work asking me to return. I knew how badly I was needed so I emailed telling them I was willing to come back.’
Adding: ‘I know this is a global pandemic, but I have no idea how to handle the situation.’
Stunning in red – Bhasha said she felt ‘like a refugee’ after being trapped in India after the Covid-19 lockdown
The beauty queen was born in India, but moved to Derby with her family when she was nine.
She started her first shift as a junior doctor in August 2019, just hours after being crowned Miss England.
Bhasha flew back to India earlier this month alongside her mum Mita to do charity work with a group that supports several international charities.
But after the travel ban was imposed, the pair were separated when her mother was unable to board the same flight back to Kolkata.
Dr Mukherjee said she had been feeling ‘guilty’ hearing about NHS staff working 13-hour shifts, but was unable to get home to the UK until Nick Low stepped in to secure her a flight
The pair were also due to fly to Pakistan the following week for their next trip.
‘We were hoping to be out of the country by the end of the day because it would be the last day that we could travel,’ she said.
‘I got on the flight and they started doing the safety checks.
‘I actually fell asleep because it was really early in the morning, but when I woke up an hour had gone by and we were still on the ground,’ she added.
Despite telling passengers the delay was due to a technical fault, airline staff eventually said the plane had been grounded indefinitely.
Bhasha posing with a copy of Around the World in Eighty Days by French writer Jules Verne while in isolation
‘It was such an anxiety provoking situation. I thought how am I going to get home and back to work,’ she said.
‘There were hundreds of people just standing there in the airport with their bags desperately trying to get on a flight and leave. I was just sat on the floor crying.
‘Everyone was crying, desperately trying to get home. I felt like a refugee,’ she added.
Bhasha said she was forced to self-isolate among family because her 92-year-old grandmother is among people vulnerable to Covid-19.
She added that she had been stuck in her room alone ‘feeling completely useless.’
The Miss England contest has also been postponed due to the global outbreak.