Working through Corona – with Jasmine Bell

By Seb Sternik

On the pitch, the 21-year-old is a hard hitting forward with plethora of skill. However, off the field, Bell works in a pharmacy and is currently helping to keep the country moving as one of the nations key workers.

The player signed with Castleford at the start of pre-season but, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic she is yet to represent the Tigresses in a competitive fixture.

With the season currently suspended, it’s not known when Bell will get that opportunity. Nevertheless, her focus at this moment in time is to work through this unprecedented time.

When asked about working in a pharmacy during this moment of national health crisis, the player said: “We’re just dealing with everyone’s prescriptions at the moment as obviously people are not allowed to go to the doctors to order them now.

“We’re also dealing with people that are not from our pharmacy. Because we’re still open, we have to help them.”

The youngster also admitted the increase in demand means it’s all hands-on deck for the staff working at Airedale Pharmacy.

She said: “Obviously you don’t get much time off anymore. Just working through. Staying late. Later than we should do.

“We’re just trying to stay on top of everything so we can get medication out to people. We’ve been staying later. We normally get an hour for our dinner but we’ve just been working through that.”

When asked whether she was worried about contracting the virus due to her line of work, Bell simply answered: “It is worrying but we can’t shut because people have concerns and that’s what we have to consider.”

Away from work, Bell continues to train at home. “I get back in from work at around 7 or 8pm,” said the forward. “I’ve got some weights and bit of equipment so I’m doing bits of stuff every day.”

Despite this, the player does admit that training alone is incomparable to the atmosphere and comradery of being with your team mates. She said: “Yeah, it’s not the same. Training by yourself is hard but we’ve just got to get through it so that when we’re back together we’re all ready for the season.

“We’re hopeful that it goes as soon as possible really. We’re keeping up with training and we have to be ready so that when the season returns, we can get straight back into it.”

It is unclear when the 2020 campaign will get underway however, we will continue to update fans via our social media channels when there is more information.

Castleford Tigers Women would like to give a big shoutout to all the main shirt sponsors: Hillside Childcare, GMB Union, Tracked Spider Solutions, Yorkshire Flight Simulator, Anthony Higgins Transport, Castle Commercial Cleaning Limited, B&J Goulding, Marra Falcons, Pizza Prima, SB Paving, D&M Family Butchers and the Wakefield Council.