COMMUNITY SUPPORTING THE NHS

APRIL 2020

A woman from Great Houghton started a sewing network to make PPE headbands for NHS staff. Linzi Adams has had her own sewing company for the past ten years, but due to a drop in orders decided to do something for the NHS.

She said: “I have two cousins who work up at the hospital, so when my orders for the business started to drop, I thought that I’d do something to help them.

“I know a lot of people are complain- ing about the way the current PPE is damaging their ears and skin, so the idea of making an elastic strap for them sprung to mind.

“It was only supposed to be for my cousins but they were received so well, so I had to make some more.”

Over 100 had already gone to Barnsley Hospital in April 2020, but Linzi was asking for volunteers to help her meet the current demand.

“I set up a Facebook group on Monday night, and we’ve already got more than 200 people in there who say they’re happy to help one way or another,” Linzi told the Chronicle.

“I think it shows what a wonderful community it is that we live in, everyone seems to be getting involved.

“There’s people outside of Great Houghton getting involved as well, PPE: Nurses Kerry Cooper, Emma Shaw, and Olivia Hobson which is absolutely fantastic.

“I’ve sent out sewing packs to the people that have asked for help, and I’ve received a lot of donations already, but if we’re to do this for as long as we hope, we do need more,” she added.

“Whether it be elastic, buttons or help sewing them, everything is a huge help.”

Friend Nat Auckland said: “Once I saw what Linzi was doing I couldn’t wait to get involved with it, I can’t sew or anything so I decided to give some money so she can get some materials.

“It shows what a great community we live in when there’s this many people that are helping, it’s wonderful.”

A school’s design and technology department made their own personal protective equipment to send to frontline NHS staff working round the clock at Barnsley Hospital.

Horizon Community College made plans to support the hospital by creating visors that staff can wear to protect themselves when working near patients suffering with coronavirus.

Phil Robson was the subject leader at the school, and the one spearheading the scheme. He said: “There’s a lot of schools and firms across the UK doing things like this to help the NHS, as the protective equipment they currently have either isn’t good enough or doesn’t exist.

“We’re trying to help people at Barnsley Hospital any way we can and by providing equipment to them, we hope that we can do our bit.

“We produced 30 on Wednesday and another 100 on yesterday to send out to them.”

Phil’s wife works at the NHS Sheffield Trust, so he has first-hand experience of how hard it is for staff during these unprecedented times.

“This is a national scheme and we’re hoping that a lot of people across the nation are willing to get involved, and so it’s been a success,” Phil told the Chronicle.

“We can currently make around five visors every 25 minutes, but there’s companies with greater facilities than ours that are making way more.

“We’re doing our very best at the minute, we’ve had positive and negative views on what we’re doing, but the hospital seem happy to take the equipment, so from our point of view we can’t do anything else.” The subject leader, who has worked at the school since its opening in 2012, was keen to stress that this is only a short-term solution.

“This can’t be a long-term thing because there really needs to be actual equipment supplied to the hospitals,” he added.

“This is not an answer to the problem, we’re doing what we can to help, but in the long run this is not something that should be happening.

“All of the staff here are doing a wonderful job, whether they’re working from home and sourcing material, or if they’re helping out here in the department.”

Phil Storey, associate vice principal, is very appreciative of all the work the staff are doing to help out.

“It’s all the staff that are helping out right now, it’s not just the DT department that are getting involved,” he said.

“The IT department have been helping out with any technical difficulties that have been going on, and of course the DT department are a huge help at this time.”

Wakefield Girls’ High School also made their own PPE, sending it out to Barnsley Hospice, and Cohens Chemist in Dodworth.