We received hundreds of nominations and left it up to a varied panel of loyal staff to sift through the entries. All inspired, many amazed and some brought tears. What is clear is that divers are awesome, and it came as no surprise that within the international underwater community there were so many selfless, empathetic heroes.

Our panel have made the final choice for the 8th liveaboard prize, this time for a trip of a lifetime in The Maldives, Nominated by his cousin, Alex Chan, this is his story:

Staycations are fun, but for divers nothing beats the feeling of submersing yourself on the reefs, walls and channels of the tropics surrounded by pelagics and fish of every size and colour.

Our 7th hero goes back to a similar theme of most of the heroes so far, as she works in healthcare, right on the front line of the pandemic. Jaime Callejon Bejarano nominated Susana Garcia, from Madrid, Spain with the following:

Our 6th hero Lily Lancaster is a bit different from the previous 5 in that she doesn’t work in healthcare. In fact, at 13 years old she has plenty of time to get into that if she chooses, but right now she has shown maturity beyond her years and great compassion and we are proud to share her story, as nominated by her Uncle Martin Lancaster:

Nominated by David White, Phuong Cao wins a free liveaboard trip in the Maldives when she can finally take some time off, and here is her story:

I, David White, would like to nominate Phuong Cao (36) for her tireless efforts fighting this pandemic. Not satisfied with being a frontline hospitalist in New York she took a second job on the COVID team in Guam to treat patients under even tougher conditions on her weeks off!

In February Emperor Divers launched the Covid Diver Heroes initiative, where we aim to recognise 8 people who have stepped up in the pandemic with free liveaboard trips in the Maldives and the Red Sea.

We are delighted to share with you the story of our third hero Megumi Gotada, who wins a free Red Sea liveaboard trip. Megumi was nominated by two different people showing the effect she has had in her community, and so here we have the nomination from her friend and colleague Katharina Berger:

We are honoured to share with you the story of our second hero Noam Har-Tzvi, who wins a free Maldives liveaboard trip. Noam was nominated by her brother Adi for the following reasons:

“During the Corona in Israel, Noam founded a voluntary initiative called "Staying Together" - Connecting corona patients and their families. She couldn't stand the thought of elderly people dying alone in hospitals isolated from their families, so she decided to take action.

I’d like to nominate, Deborah Braham, a friend I made on a diving trip to Tobago.

Deborah is an NHS anaesthetist and early on when PPE was in short supply, she just went on WhatsApp and organised visors and more directly for her hospital. Deborah just made it happen.

Deborah married another diver not long after we met. With her in the UK and us in Switzerland, we haven’t managed to meet up since she had children. Whatever, in Yorkshire speak, she’s a “lovely lass” who definitely deserves a good holiday. 

Luke Atkinson, Emperor’s Red Sea Manager, said “this initiative is our way of saying ‘thank you’ to all those hundreds of people who have taken a selfless interest in looking after the vulnerable in their community. Examples could include healthworkers, carers or those who have come out of retirement to volunteer locally, but really we know there are many other ways people have been heroic. “