Judy Jarvis was surprised to be asked to come in for a vaccine at 75

A FORMER movie actress said she felt a rush of “euphoria” after getting her first dose of the Covid vaccine this week at an “efficient and well-run” NHS service in Kentish Town. 

Judy Jarvis got a surprise text message inviting her in for the Pfizer injection at the Peckwater Health Centre in Islip Street last week.

With no under-lying health conditions, the 75 year old is in the fourth priority group and had not expected to get the jab for weeks. 

She said: “I felt so good afterwards, completely euphoric. It was like a celebratory thing, I had to restrain myself walking home. It was such a lovely feeling, a wonderful experience. It would make a good situation comedy. All these elderly people coming in bent over and doubled, and then skipping out throwing their sticks away. 

Ms Jarvis added:  “There is so much criticism of everything at the moment, so much agitation about the organisation and people not abiding by the rules. There has been so much unpleasantness. But I was incredibly impressed with how it was all organised there. 

The Peckwater Centre

Ms Jarvis, who had roles in Hammer Horror movies and TV series in the 1970s, said there was “a whole pile of helpers and volunteer. .. all wearing masks” at the centre.

She was moved into a waiting room and then given the jab by a GP, before moving into another waiting room for 15 minutes, before being told she could leave.  She is expecting to have to return in 12 weeks for a second dose. 

Ms Jarvis, who lives in Kentish Town, is celebrated for cult 1970s horror classics, including Twins of Evil and Lust For A Vampire when she was known as Judy Matheson. 

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She is one of several residents to contact the New Journal with kind words about the Peckwater vaccination service, including Zina Rohan, from Gaisford Street, who described “two waiting rooms, with clean and comfortable chairs well spaced apart”.

“Everything within their control was impeccable”, Ms Rohan added.

Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and the Oxford-AstraZenica vaccine are now being provided to residents -with over 80s, frontline NHS staff and those working in care homes first on the list. 

The vaccination programme is being organised by the North Central London (NCL), a body that manages NHS funding to five boroughs including Camden and Islington. The body said it did not know how many vaccines had been administered. 

NCL said you cannot book an appointment and must wait to be contacted by your surgery about the jab.

At UCLH, more than 7,000 staff have received vaccine injections since Christmas.