TEN STUDENTS are celebrating an early Christmas present after winning a cash prize for getting a Covid-19 vaccination.

The winners from the University of Sussex have each won £5,000 as part of a programme announced by in the summer to encourage take-up of the coronavirus jab.

The university also arranged a pop-up vaccine clinic on campus to encourage people to get jabbed.

One of the winners, Amy Gardiner said she felt "overwhelmed" when she found out she won.

Amy said: "I re-read the email about 20 times because I was in so much shock.

"I am so grateful to the university and I couldn't be happier.

"My plans are to save the money for next year to learn to drive and towards a car."

The draw was part of a broader push by the university to encourage vaccination take-up, which also included hosting a number of pop-up temporary vaccination clinics in conjunction with local NHS partners to ensure hundreds of students could be vaccinated on campus.

A student survey on vaccination status conducted in September had 11,000 responses, with 87 per cent of those confirming they had already been fully vaccinated.

One of the winners, Amna Jami, a first year BSc Medical Neuroscience student, said that it was amazing to win the cash prize.

She said: "I think it's great that the university is trying as much as possible to encourage people to get vaccinated, so we can all be safer.

"I was already vaccinated before I knew about this draw, but I think knowing you might win a prize like this makes people want to get vaccinated even more."

Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Students Kelly Coate said: "We're very proud of how our students have behaved during the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Getting vaccinated is just one of the ways in which they have shown how much they care about each other and protect the Sussex community. These prizes are our way of saying thank you."

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