AN IRISH NUN who lived through the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 says she wants young people and frontline health care workers to receive the Covid-19 vaccine before she does.
Sr Colette Hickey, who turns 103 this year, insists the vaccine would be wasted on her, and wants to see the first few doses put to better use.
Due to Ireland's policy of vaccinating its most vulnerable citizens first, Sr Hickey is due to have her first jab on January 11.
The Cork-based nun, who won the inaugural winner of the Cork Person of the Year award in 1993, insists she wants someone else to go in her stead.
She says she doesn't really remember the Spanish Flu outbreak properly "because we didn't get any news then like you have now."
However, Sr Hickey says she remembers the Second World War "because there was nothing; commodities were very scarce", and remembers the polio outbreak in Cork in 1956 "because a neighbour got it".
The 102-year-old says she puts her longevity on this Earth down to having "a fairly good sense of humour".
"I don't know how the Lord has left me here so long. I was always happy and contented in myself and I've had very good health, thank God," she said.
"There's no sign of me going yet."
