A Burnham-based online group has been formed to sew unique clothing bags for local NHS staff during the Coronavirus pandemic to allow them to safely bring home their work uniforms for washing and protect their families.
10-15 sewing enthusiasts have joined the group, called ‘Southwest Uniform Bags for NHS & Carers’ in order to produce the cloth bags for NHS and other frontline staff.
One of the organisers, Mandy Williams, told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “The bags allow our keyworkers to place their used uniforms in and transfer straight to their washing machine and not have to handle the dirty clothing.”
“I have friends and family who are working in ‘key worker’ roles and I know that these bags are an asset for them after a long shift.”
“The new group has taken off really fast and with the help of Tara Potter, we are proud to say that we already have volunteers who are beginning to sew bags and those who have agreed to collect the bags from our volunteers.”
“Today alone we have had interest from local towns and villages, including Nailsea and others in Devon and Plymouth. We will hopefully have co-ordinators to manage these areas.”
Mandy adds: “We are receiving orders already from Police, ambulance stations and hospital wards.”
“We are currently looking for volunteers who can make and donate the bags and any local nurses or those in keyworker roles who could provide us with contacts or potentially disperse the bags to wards and emergency service stations.”
“It seems that we have between 10-15 sewers at the moment – a lot more are needed as the ambulance stations in Bridgwater, Burnham and Taunton have asked for 340 bags.”
“We are looking for donations of bags, and any local nurses, keyworkers that would be able to provide us with contacts or potentially disperse the bags to wards and stations.”
For more details, see the online group here.
