Shield NHS
During the Covid 19 pandemic, we worked on a large project within the UK when the call for PPE for the NHS went out to the public. After researching where our money could make the biggest impact, we decided to attempt to produce Face Shields. We got in touch with an American designer who had put a free design for a simple face shield online and they put us in contact with some like-minded people in the UK. Together we formed Shield NHS, with the intent of raising money, producing face shields and donating them to where they were most needed on the healthcare frontline. Our team included Doctors, Designers, Logistics Managers and many more all working for free for a common cause.
We tried several different production methods and used a range of different companies. We even tried out groups of volunteers constructing shields at home.
In the end, we settled on a wonderful company in Cambridge who were able to switch their production over to shields and were able to work in teams to maintain maximum safety.
Our product was approved by Addenbrookes NHS trust which gave us the green light to be able to officially send the Shields to hospitals and NHS trusts. We raised thousands of pounds through sponsored gaming and music streaming and throughout social media pages and Go Fund Me. Every penny went to making more Shields. Hospitals and Surgeries applied online for Shields, many of them desperate for help with their PPE after the Government’s tragic mishandling of PPE led to deaths and cases within their already struggling staff.
We utilised links at the London Fire brigade to help make shields and even had the Archbishop of Canterbury helping out at one point. We used the Salvation Army and their logistics experts and lorries to ship Shields all around the country.
We produced over 70,000 Face Shields and they went to hospitals all over the country, they were seen in wards on TV and we had many notes of thanks from people who had received them.
The company we worked with producing the shields went on to produce many more for the NHS and after the initial wave was over and PPE levels had been restored for the UK we shut the project down.
Hospitality for Heroes
During the early days of COVID-19 we supported Hospitality for Heroes with a donation, allowing the Sri Lankan street food chain The Coconut Tree to provide meals for the often forgotten cleaners and porters at our main local hospital, The John Radcliffe.
With the hospitality industry reeling and furlough in full effect, restaurants up and down the country were closing and\or Furloughing staff.
Oli Coles OBE saw the benefits of having Furloughed cooks and chefs prepare restaurant standard meals for exhausted hospital workers.
Working with Hospitality for Heroes and The Coconut Tree (Oxford) Hospitality for Heroes agreed on a price per meal and successfully fed hundreds of cleaners and porters.
The gratitude and appreciation that we experienced was humbling and touching and made the whole experience an incredibly worthwhile one”.
Bath University
We donated £10,000 to Bath University for their own Covid 19 response, which like our Shield NHS project was largely based around the construction of Face Shields. They focused on the needs of their local hospital as well as GP’s and care homes. We funded their initial stages to help them get the process moving quickly. Their own funding soon kicked in and they were able to make over 400,000 PPE items for front-line staff, including goggles from the spare parts of the Face Shield production process.
6 August 2022
