During the early days of the Covid 19 Pandemic in 2020, LE Graphics like most businesses followed the guidance from the UK Government and the Northern Ireland Executive and we ceased trading for a period of time.
During that time the team from LE Graphics, supported by friends, family, customers, suppliers and the community came together and started making desperately needed face shields for the local South West Acute Hospital (SWAH), this then led to a GoFundMe campaign to gather donations which were used to source other items of PPE for free distribution to SWAH and many other health care workers
This page is a collection of facts and figures from that time, as well as some of the daily updates which we posted on GoFundMe and social media. It is not all in chronological order – it was a crazy time and records and updates were very ad-hoc! These are memories of a difficult time when despite the circumstances, a community came together and achieved good things.
Awards
Read about some of our awards and recognition which include some related to the COVID-19 period
4th April 2020 - We Need Your Help
Although we are currently closed due to the Coronavirus, we have been providing an on-call service for our regular customers to produce urgent virus related signage.
In addition we have also been working away behind the scenes to see how we can help our local NHS staff. We have now completed tests to check if we can manufacture PTEG face shields using our laser cutting equipment and we are pleased to say the results are great.
Our face shields were approved today by Professor Ronan O’Hare, Assistant Medical Director at the South West Acute Hospital, who’s response to us was “These are great …. make as many as you can!!”
The biggest problem for us has been sourcing sheets of the PETG material, David Donaldson owner of LE Graphics travelled to Belfast today to take delivery of enough material to make around 600 shields which we have already started work on. We hope to be able to deliver the first batch to staff at SWAH by the middle of next week.
LE graphics have funded the materials for this first batch and for as long as we can get materials we will continue to make and deliver these shields to our front line NHS staff at SWAH, completely free of charge.
Supply of PETG plastic sheeting is now understandably exhausted throughout Europe and manufacturers in Belgium and elsewhere are quoting mid to end May for more supplies.
We have been told that we may be able to secure some more material from a distributor in Belfast early next week and Now WE NEED YOUR HELP. We have set up a crowdfunding page to raise money to buy as much of this stock as we can get our hands on. All material purchased will be used to manufacture and delver shields to SWAH completely free of charge.
In the unlikely event that we have a surplus in donations we will use any left over funds to buy other PPE (such as gloves etc) for SWAH.
Please hep us by donating what you can towards purchasing plastic sheeting for face shield production.
6th April 2020 - Production Has Started
We have now got hold of some more PETG plastic that will enable us to make a total of over 1000 face shields in the next two weeks or so. We may also be able to get some heavier material that can be used but we will have to make a different design of shield with it, we will move to that when current supply is exhausted.
We completed a first batch of 80 shields today and will deliver those to SWAH tomorrow morning.
The video gives a bit of a glimpse into how we convert 8ft x 4ft sheets of plastic into face shields. We hope to be able to do a similar quantity daily but I will not have time to do daily videos which is probably just as well…… as you will see I’m no Speilberg
7th April 2020 - First Batch Delivered
This morning we handed the very first batch of 80 face shields (which we made yesterday) over to Anne Donnaghey, Assistant Director at South West Acute Hospital.
And this afternoon David made a motorcycle run to Belfast to deliver 20 Face Shields to Dr. Rory Maguire, Consultant, in the Department of Anaesthesia at the Belfast City Hospital.
The best news is that by the end of the day we were able to leave another 84 shields out with South West Acute Hospital. So all in all not a bad day production!
Thanks to all our NHS heroes. I wish we could make more / faster but the good news is that we hope to have another source of much needed PPE items by the weekend. Thanks to everyone who has donated and helped to make this all possible.
The amazing news is that the fundraising has left us with additional money to be able to source other vital PPE and equipment for our local NHS heroes.
Today we managed to purchase 150 Litres of 75% alcohol hand sanitizer and some medical gloves all of which will accompany the face shields to SWAH tomorrow.
If the funds keep coming in we will keep delivering much needed PPE. It is important to say that everything we source and supply is, quality product and is approved by the senior medical team at SWAH before we go ahead so its all needed, appreciated and used.
On another note – I have received a lot of very genuine requests for face shields and I truly wish we could make more and faster. The truth is there’s a limit to how much we can do, our laser cutter can only go so fast, as can our volunteers!!!
I wish we could just supply everyone who asks but we simply cannot and we are not qualified to know where the need is greatest.
For that reason we are delivering them as they are completed to SWAH and they will be distributed from there (under direction of Professor O’Hare) to where the need is greatest. I hope everyone who needs them will get them – we are certainly doing our very best, and if Prof O’Hare or his team need shields delivered to other locations we will take care of that as well.
We are achieving much greater things thanks to the donations and the wonderful messages of support from you all so THANK YOU each and every one.
I would also like to thank the wonderful team of volunteers (staff and family) who are working tirelessly with me to make this all come together
8th April 2020 - More Deliveries
Today we made and delivered another 84 of our face shields to the team at South West Acute Hospital, in addition we were delighted to be able to help another group of volunteers who are 3D printing shields.
David as a volunteer with the VBG (Volunteer Bikers Group) was asked to meet another rider in Dungannon and bring back a delivery of face shields for the team in Ward 3 at SWAH. We were happy to help with this.
David is pictured delivering face shields to Geradette McLoughlin from SWAH Ward 3
9th April 2020 - Update
Today we delivered the largest daily number of face shields yet to South West Acute Hospital, this was possible for one big reason. Yesterday afternoon St Michael’s College in Enniskillen kindly loaned us the laser cutter from their technology centre and we had this up and running by this morning, supplementing the output from our own laser machine. This meant that we were able to produce, assemble, pack and deliver 19 boxes totalling 133 face shields to the SWAH today.
In addition the donations are still flooding in both from our GoFundMe page and off line, the total donations received now stands at over £9,500 and growing. We have been overwhelmed by this and are grateful to everyone who has contributed.
We have already delivered out one hundred and fifty litres of hand sanitiser to South West Acute Hospital and have today taken in another three hundred litres. Tomorrow we expect to receive two thousand FFP3 face masks. These have all been purchased thanks to donations received and both the masks and sanitiser will be distributed to carers and nursing homes in our community.
We cannot express how grateful we are to all of supporters, those who have made much needed financial donations, those who have sent messages of support and those who have freely given their time to help.
This includes the amazing team of staff from LE Graphics who are all on the government furlough scheme but are working voluntarily solely to help produce the face shields as well as non staff members who have been in to help. Its all appreciated and all a great credit to our community.
April 2020 - Thanks to Old Portora Union
We are extremely grateful to the Old Portora Union who today contributed the amazing sum of £1200 which allowed us to purchase one hundred and fifty litres of the hand sanitiser for distribution to front line health care heroes in Fermanagh.
10th April – UPDATE
Another day and another update!
It’s the end of the week and I think we are now able to say that “We’re doing OK at this face shield making business!”
Today our hard-working team of volunteers managed to once again break our own record. Today we manufactured, packaged and delivered just over two hundred face shields to South West Acute Hospital, bringing the total produced this week to just over six hundred.
The second laser cutter kindly loaned to us by St Michael’s College has really helped to increase output.
As well as the face shields we were able to deliver another three hundred litres of high quality hand sanitiser to front line healthcare workers in our local community. I dropped off bulk containers to lots of locations healthcare teams in need of it including: The Enniskillen Rapid Response Nursing Team, Care Plus, Lakeland Community Care, Adult Learning Disability Services Team, Northwick House Care Home, Colorado Care Home, Derrygonnelly Medical Practice, Drumary House Care Home, Knockmore House Care Home, Maple Health Care Practice (Lisnaskea Medical Centre), Gortacharn Nursing Home, The Tilery Nursing Home, Gillbrooke Nursing Home & Meadowview Nursing Home.
This is in addition to the one hundred and fifty litres delivered earlier in the week to Millcroft Nursing home, Graan Abbey Care Home and the South West Acute Hospital.
Nest week we hope to be able to deliver a large quantity of FFP3 masks to our local community care heroes.
The team who helped manufacture the face shields today included Neil Reid, Jason McVitty, William Armstrong and David Morrison, they have all been working very long hard days all week and, of course, completely voluntarily so I am very, very grateful for their help.
We estimate that we have enough plastic to continue with another week of production and hopefully get another 600+ crucial face shields delivered to SWAH. The team are going to take a much needed rest and start assembly again on Monday but we have some special guest volunteers coming in over the weekend to keep the laser cutters running making the components to give us a head start for Monday.
I do have some hand sanitiser left so if you are aware of any professional, community health care teams in our local Fermanagh area who are in need, please let me know and I will try my best to help.
Finally, can I once again thank each and every one of our donors, without your contributions, we just wouldn’t be able to help all the people who we have reached this week.
Stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.
Wishing you all good health from
David, Edith and all the team at LE Graphics
11th April – UPDATE
I was planning on no update for this evening but the planned rest day turned into a day back at it so here’s a (not so) short update.
Firstly I had a team of volunteers willing to come in and help make some more face shields today so thanks to Alison Morrison, Hannah Morrison and Lisa Donaldson we got another 110 face shields made and packaged ready for the hospital.
I also had requests for more hand sanitizer for community health and social care teams and so I delivered today to Beechlea Children’s Home, Gnangara Care Home and Adult Learning Disability Services.
Earlier this week I sent some more coffee cups sponsored by LE Graphics out to the teams in ICU and the Emergency Department at SWAH, and discovered that the nurses in Emergency Dept were in need of hand creams to help with skin damage from all the washing and hand sanitizer. Killyehvlin Hotel very kindly provided me with a couple of cases of hand cream which I was able to leave out to the ED team this morning.
When there I discovered that the team did not have face shields … these are the guys on the very front line working to help us all, so I took 5 boxes of shields from today’s production run, straight out to them long with some sanitizer . It was great to see the shields in use, protecting our NHS heroes, before I even left the building.
See the attached photograph ………… this is what your support has helped us do so please, be proud of helping. Tomorrow is definitely going to be a rest day so you’ll all get a rest from my daily sermon… but we’ll be back on Monday and I’ll provide another update then. Until then, stay home & stay well …….
13th April – UPDATE
Just a quick update for all of our amazing donors to let you know how we got on today. Today we started up the laser cutters at 6:30am this evening we delivered another forty boxes of face shields to South West Acute Hospital – that’s 280 shields today.
We will be back at it tomorrow morning again, but sadly we are running out of the plastic sheeting which we need to make these and by Wednesday I think we will be all out. We have contacted all of the manufacturers and distributors but, as you can imagine, there is now a worldwide shortage and lead times in Europe for more stock are around 14 weeks. We are still looking and experimenting with other materials and if there is any way to keep going, we will. However, I believe that with your help we have already achieved great things and by tomorrow evening will have delivered over one thousand shields to our frontline heroes in our local hospital.
Today we took delivery of more hand sanitiser and got deliveries of bulk containers out to more front line workers in our community including: The County Care Home, Western Urgent Care Nurses, The Family Intervention Social Worker Team, North West Care and Slieve League Care Home. We set out on this journey to do whatever we could with a limited budget, however thanks to all of the generous donations which we have received the journey has become a much more fruitful one and every day we have been able to bring a little comfort to some of the people who are working so hard to protect and care for us all.
The plastic may be running low, but our enthusiasm is not and for as long as the donations keep coming in, we will keep on working to bring much needed PPE to the frontline people in our community.
Thanks also to everyone who has sent us messages of support, it’s nice to know that so many people are behind what we are doing, and all the encouraging words help to keep us motivated.
Finally, thanks again to all of our hard-working team of volunteers who have been coming in day after day and doing long hard days of work completely voluntarily to make the face shields and help with distribution of the other PPE. Today’s merry bunch were Jason McVitty, Neil Reid and William Armstrong.
14th April – UPDATE
Yesterday evening I reported that we had another successful day making face shields for NHS but that we would run out of materials today or tomorrow. I started the day off ringing and emailing around plastic suppliers to try and track down any small amount of plastic sheeting, one of our donors and volunteers Simon Gray was also on the hunt for materials and then everything changed!
I received the most amazing email from Mark McKenna at Quinn Packaging in Ballyconnell to tell me that he had a very large quantity of plastic available and the best news was that if it was suitable for us Quinn Packaging were willing to donate it free of charge!
We got a sample up from Ballyconnell and set about experimenting. After changing our design and making a few tweeks here and there I’m delighted to say that we were able to make a very successful shield. All credit to Mark and his team from Quinn Packaging, because two hours later we had a half ton roll sitting outside our workshop. Thanks also to Gabriel Timoney from Timoney tiles who came to the rescue with a forklift – otherwise I’m not quite sure how we’d have got the roll out of the delivery van!
Other individual donations both through GoFundMe and offline are still coming in and our total so far is now sitting at £13,783.00 which is just incredible. It is important to remind all of our wonderful donors that every penny is being turned into PPE and delivered out to those in need of it, just as quickly as we can, keep sharing our links and supporting us and we will keep supporting our NHS and care workers on your behalf.
Thank you all so much and please, let me know if you are aware of any health care teams that we can help.
Stay safe
David, Edith and all the LE Graphics team
15th April – UPDATE
Another successful day today, we completed 175 shields today and made another delivery to SWAH this evening. Halfway through today’s production we ran out of the original plastic and switched over to the new design starting to use the film donated yesterday by Quinn Packaging.
Our volunteers today were Janett Walker, John Thompson, Jason McVitty and Lisa Donaldson – thank you to each of them, you guys are amazing!
We also got lots more bulk containers of sanitiser out to our community heroes today with deliveries to WHSCT Community Carers based at SWAH, Barbour Court Sheltered Dwelling, WHSCT Community Nursing team, Irvinestown Medical Practice, WHSCT Community Mental Health Team, WHSCT Older Peoples Social Services Team, Creamery House Care Home (WHSCT) Kesh and Mantlin Cottage Care Home (Praxis) Kesh.
Fundraising is still coming in which is fabulous and is allowing us to order more PPE for our frontline health and social care workers. Today we were stunned once again with a donation of £700 from 3 Peaks Cycle Club in Tempo, and £500 from Fermanagh Pedigree Livestock Breeders these generous amounts topping up the private donations already made by quite a few members of each of those organisations.
16th April – UPDATE
Today was a long day but a great day and we beat all of our own records.
Our incredible team of volunteers made 280 face shields today.
Our fundraising also crossed the £14,000 mark today which is absolutely amazing.
We have now delivered over 1200 face shields to the South West Acute Hospital for use by our heroic front line workers and today we also started delivering face shields to other care workers outside the SWAH, we were delighted to be able to deliver shields to GP Surgeries in Derrygonnelly, Lisnaskea and Fivemiletown as well as to the amazing team at Millcroft Care Home in Enniskillen.
This is all about more than a physical shield, we all need to realise the sacrifice these people are making to try and care for us all and keep us all healthy. It really is a massive personal sacrifice and one which I have no doubt is bringing serious stress and anxiety to health and social care workers on the front line. We all need to take time to consider the mental health issues which will result from all of this and to do what we can to help.
I have seen first-hand the look of relief and comfort that comes onto peoples faces when you hand them what really is a very basic and inexpensive piece of plastic in the form of a face shield, but it’s much more than a piece of plastic to its wearer. It is a comfort, a barrier to seek refuge behind and a form of protection as much psychologically as physically.
The messages of thanks which we are receiving daily are truly heart warming and I hope that everyone who has helped us make this possible by donating is aware of the truly great impact which it is having.
From a local GP ”Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for the visors…. really appreciated …. u guys are AMAZING”
From a local care home manager: “Huge thanks from all the staff for the face shields, much appreciated and already put to good use”
In addition to the face shield deliveries mentioned we also were able to deliver hand sanitiser today to the team at Positive Futures Fermanagh as well as the Enable Care Services teams in Fivemiletown, Coranny and Lisnaskea.
Thanks today to our volunteers Lisa Donaldson, Janette Walker and Jason McVitty who made all the face shields as well as to Hugh McCaffrey for assisting with deliveries.
Having supplied such a large quantity to SWAH we are now able to supply some smaller deliveries of face shields to community health care workers although we cannot supply very large orders. We also still have some sanitiser available. If you know of a team who needs either, please let me know and I will try and help out.
Thank you all for your support
Stay home and Keep safe
David, Edith & all the team at LE Graphics
17th April – UPDATE
Today has been another productive day at LE Graphics Face Shield HQ!
With the assistance of Hanna Morrison, David Morrison, and Jason McVitty we got another 250 Face Shields made and brought our grand total up to 1750 shields in two weeks.
Today also seen face shields delivered to all of the staff at Northwick House Care Home, Gortacharn Private Nursing Home, The Graan Abbey Care Home, SWAH Ward 8 and all of the GP’s and Nurses working at Dr Cathcart & Partners, Drs Mallon & McConville, Drs Toal & Maguire, Devenish Medical Practice and Lakeside Medical Practice as well as the Erne Health Centre Treatment Room staff and the Erne Health Centre District Nurses and Health Visitors. We were also able to provide some shields for some local care workers and even send three to a team with local connections nursing spinal injury patients in Belfast. We also delivered yet more of our hand sanitiser today, to the Graan Abbey Care Home.
Big thanks to David Beattie for help with distribution.
It is such a pleasure to see the look of relief on people’s faces when they get a face shield and so nice to receive messages saying how much it means to them, so lets keep spreading the cheer – If anyone knows of any community healthcare workers who are in need of face shields or hand sanitiser, please do contact me and I’ll try and help. We should also have face masks very soon; these have been held up with couriers but I am assured they are on the way.
We have been working 12-hour days for 14 days in a row so it’s time for a break. We will resume production early on Monday morning, but if I can help anyone out with supplies in the meantime, please let me know.
Thank you all for your amazing support, please keep sharing the link for donations, stay home, stay safe and protect the NHS.
David, Edith & all the team at LE Graphics
20th April – UPDATE
There were no Monday blues at LE Graphics today – today’s ace team comprising Janette Walker, Simon Gray and Jason McVitty managed to turn out over 200 face shields. Our fundraising total has also just passed the £15,000 mark – which is absolutely staggering and a testimony to the fantastic community spirit which has come to the fore in these difficult times.
Yesterday was a planned day off but I ended up making a five hour round trip to South Down to pick up 3000 surgical masks, the sun was shining and nature was in full bloom everywhere yet it felt like a surreal trip with barely a car on the roads. Roll on the good times when we can all enjoy the wonderful country that we live in and hopefully take the simple things in life a little less for granted.
Tomorrow morning, we are receiving another delivery of our 75% alcohol hand sanitiser and the rest of the day will be spent distributing PPE around local community care and nursing teams and local nursing homes. And, of course, we will have another band of merry (well, I hope they are merry) volunteers working hard to make more face shields.
Once again, we couldn’t do it without the absolutely amazing support we have had, from financial contributions to messages of support (and even a few packets of biscuits!). It all means so much and has kept us focused on doing all we can to help the brave and hardworking heath care teams who are doing so much for all of us.
In addition to turning out another 200 shields today we made deliveries of Face Shields, Masks and Sanitiser to Tempo and Brookeborough medical practices and Masks and Face Shields to The Tilery Nursing Home and Meadow View Nursing home.
This was followed by a very special delivery made to assist our cross border neighbours in Killybegs Community Hospital in Donegal. Under the banner of the Volunteer Bikers Group and with the assistance of Davie Beattie, I brought them a delivery of Face Shields, Masks and some Hand Sanitiser.
22nd April – UPDATE
Good evening all, firstly thanks to all the wonderful new supporters who have made donations in the past few days. Apologies for the lack of an update last night, particularly to Margaret who apparently sat up very late waiting on the email! I think that at this stage in the process you all know what we are up to and an update every day is probably too much. In fact every other day is probably still more than most of you would want to hear from me!
Anyhow, it’s been a busy couple of days with a few ups and downs – thankfully more ups than downs. Total face shield production is now over two thousand and total fundraising is over £15,000. We have received two more consignments of hand sanitiser and have been busy distributing this along with face shields and surgical masks. Sadly we were let down badly on a promised delivery of washable aprons which had been ordered and paid for ten days ago, the supplier called to say that the price had gone up by 1,000% (yes …one thousand percent!). Needless to say, we had to cancel the order and instead ordered more sanitiser.
We are also now running out of plastic for face shield production, with no stocks available throughout Europe until well into July/August. We were kindly given a large quantity of plastic last week, but after a few days production when we got deeper into the roll, we discovered that, sadly, over 95% of the plastic had heat and stress damage and was not clear and therefore not useable for visors. We will have enough to last this week but that will finish production of the shields for us.
However, the great news is that a lot of care establishments are now telling us that they are starting to get supplies coming through official channels, which is really encouraging to hear. Demand is still very high for PPE and we have been trying to fulfil as many requests as possible throughout the area.
Yesterday and today we have delivered face shields, hand sanitiser and surgical masks to a wide variety of NHS and care worker heroes including: Praxis, The Leonard Cheshire Trust, Marie Curie Nursing Teams, Travena Private Nursing Home, Colorado Care Home, County Care Home, North West Care, L:isnaskea and Tempo District Nursing Teams, Coleshill House based WHSST Community Nursing and Social Work teams, St Michaels Parish and several individual care workers and vulnerable and ill patients in the community.
If you know anyone in need, please do contact me. To date we have distributed 2,000 Face Shields, 3,000 Surgical Masks and 1,100 litres (equivalent to over 18,000 of the 60ml pocket bottles) of 75% alcohol hand sanitiser. These are large numbers which we think are amazing and it is all down to YOUR SUPPORT. We are still trying to source other useful supplies for our frontline workers and as long as donations keep coming in, we will keep on doing our bit to make every penny count. As well as the crucial donations, this whole project has relied on my amazing team of staff at LE Graphics who have worked tirelessly and I must stress voluntarily making, assembling and packing the face shields.
A great big thank you is due to William Armstrong, Janette Walker, Jason McVitty & Neil Reid who have been accompanied by volunteers David Morrison, Lisa Donaldson, Simon Gray, Hannah Morrison and Alison Morrison. Particular thanks today also go to Yvonne & Derek Bowles, Cynthia McDonald & Kate Abraham. Although not strictly on the governments list of essential services – deliveries of sandwiches, buns, cakes and sweets to Face Shield HQ definitely has done wonders for morale and production (if not for my waistline!).
Thanks also to Hugh McCaffrey for helping out with more deliveries in the local community today. Once again, thanks to each and every one of you for your support in every way.
Stay safe, stay home, enjoy the outdoors even if it’s just in your garden, and be reminded of how wonderful this place is that we all call home and that the day is coming sooner or later when we can all get out to enjoy and truly appreciated it once again. David, Edith & all the team at LE Graphics
P.S. That was a longer than planned email, but hopefully it will have been boring enough to help Margaret get a good nights sleep tonight!
28th April – UPDATE
Thanks to all the wonderful new supporters who have made donations in the past few days. Special mention goes to Lough Erne Amateur Radio Club who today donated £500 and are arranging distribution of hand sanitiser to Enable Care Services for us.
I have not been doing updates as regularly as I was at the start of the process. Not because we are not doing anything, but simply because things are not evolving at the same pace and it’s now a case of “more of the same” each day.
Today is significant, however, because we used the last of the plastic sheeting required to make face shields and so we have now ceased production of face shields. This is not ideal, but as things go the timing is good because we are starting to see decent supplied of shields and other PPE coming through to where it is needed which is a great relief. Our shields were very important because we got in there early and got them made and delivered to the front line when there was nothing else available. We are very proud to have managed to manufacture and deliver over 2500 shields in the past few weeks to people who needed them most at a time when nothing else was available.
Donations are still coming in, albeit at a slower rate, and we are continuing to source and distribute useful products to community carers and the local hospital daily.
Since the last update we have delivered Face Shields, Surgical Masks and the much sought after Hand Sanitiser to South West Acute Hospital, Cortacharn Nursing Home, Gillbrooke Nursing Home, Westbridge House, Barbour Court, St Josephs College, the Enniskillen Food Bank, Northwest Care, Lisnaskea Social Work Team for Older People and to countless individual NHS and community care workers and vulnerable people in our community
To date we have now made and distributed over 2,500 Face Shields, 3,000 Surgical Masks and 1,250 litres (equivalent to almost 21,000 of the 60ml pocket bottles) of 75% alcohol hand sanitiser.
Fundraising as I write this is standing at £16,644.00 in cash, plus donations of materials and of course peoples time. HOWEVER based on the products listed above at normal retail prices we have managed to distribute somewhere close to (if not over) £100,000.00 worth of protective equipment.
These numbers are huge and absolutely amazing, and it is all down to YOUR SUPPORT.
Thanks to Jason McVitty, Lisa Donaldson and Neil Reid for their help in making face shields over the past few days and thanks to all the amazing volunteers who have helped with manufacture, sourcing and delivery over the past number of weeks.
Whilst manufacture and donations are both winding down, we are not finished yet! There are still donations reaching us and for as long as they do, we will keep on putting them to good use. We took delivery of more hand sanitiser today and are expecting a delivery of scrubs in the next day or two.
We also still have some shields and masks available so If you know anyone who is in need, please contact me and I will try and help.
FINAL UPDATE & SUMMARY
Hi Everyone. I hope that this message finds everyone well. There is no doubt that we are all living through the strangest of times and are all at different stages in the journey of coming to terms with living in a world affected by Covid-19.
Things have changed so much for all of us in the past 6 months, the PPE project has been largely inactive for several months now and it seems like an appropriate time to close down the GoFundMe page and pen a final summary of what you all helped to achieve.
Back at the start of April our business had been forced to close and I decided to “have a go” at making much needed face shields, initially for the amazing people at South West Acute Hospital. I set up a GoFundMe campaign, with the modest intention of raising a few hundred pounds to supplement the money I had spent buying materials to make the face shields.
However, thanks to the truly overwhelming support of the great people of Fermanagh and further afield, donations very quickly started to pour in both online and offline, and with the generous fundraising and fantastic offers of help and support we were all able to contribute so much more than just a few boxes of face shields.
Although we are only talking about events from a few months ago, it is important to remember that things were very different then than they are now. We were heading into uncharted waters and the brave people working on our behalf in hospitals, care homes and the community were facing every difficult and stressful day with an appalling lack of PPE.
The initial idea of making some face shields soon turned into a much larger project to source and distribute PPE not only to SWAH but to dozens of other organisations and key workers in our community. I am so proud of all that we achieved and honoured to have been supported by so many generous people who not only gave financial support, but many of whom gave up hours, days and weeks of their time to help out.
Eventually official supply channels caught up with demand for PPE and our frontline workers were finally resourced as they should be. At the same time lockdown restrictions began easing and my attention and efforts had to be turned to trying to restart and rebuild a business which had been closed for around three months. That has been a whole other challenge which has consumed my time and it is only now that I am catching my breath and able to take stock of everything that has happened recent months.
Things moved very fast and I found myself answering requests for PPE at all times of the day and night, seven days a week. Where possible I kept records but when people arrived at the door or sent a message in desperation for PPE, making sure they got what they needed was more important than spreadsheets and so I hope that I will be forgiven when I say that the summary below will not be fully accurate and I have no doubt that I will have omitted to list some of the help that we provided.
It is always dangerous to single people out for personal thanks I simply must pass on my appreciation to some of the wonderful helpers that rose to the challenge of helping out and, again, I beg forgiveness for any that I have forgotten. I would like to thank everyone who donated funds to make it all possible, every single pound donated made a massive difference to people who really needed support at such a challenging time.
A large amount of money was donated, much more than was needed for materials so as well as manufacturing the face shields we were able to source a massive amount of other items , many of which were made available to us as at very reduced costs. We also received very generous donations of products and materials. All of the money has now been spent and all of the products distributed, with the exception of a few items of “scrubs” which are still being made available free of charge to community healthcare workers.
Finally please remember that we are, by no means, out of this difficult time. We must all remain focused on doing what we can to reduce spread of coronavirus and continue to show the community spirit and neighbourly support that has been so overwhelmingly evident to me this year.
Helen Keller famously said “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” and below is a brief summary of what we were able to do together:
HOW MUCH WE RAISED: £16,934.00
WHAT WE PROVIDED: 2650 NHS Approved Full Face Shields 3000 Surgical Masks 50 Cases of Surgical Gloves 1250 Litres Liquid Sanitiser Rub (equivalent to 21,000 pocket bottles) 6000 Items of Toiletries for Healthcare Workers 750 Eco Cups for tea/coffee for hospital staff working extended shifts 2500 Items of Clothing for use as “Scrubs” The estimated retail value of items distributed free of charge is around £100,000.
WHO WE HELPED (apologies for omissions): Western Health and Social Care Trust, South West Acute Hospital (Wards, ICU, ED), Belfast City Hospital (Nightingale Unit), Enniskillen Ambulance Station, Millcroft Care Home, Milvern Nursing Home, Adult Disability Services, Care Plus, Rapid Response Nursing Team, Care Direct, Lakeland Community Care, Northwick House Care Home, Derrygonnelly Medical Practice, Colorado Care Home, Gortacharn Care Home, Maple Health Care Practice, Knockmore House, The Tilery Care Home, Killybegs Community Hospital, Gillbrooke Care Home, Meadowview Care Home, Beechlea Children’s Home, Gnagara Care Home, The County Care Home, Slieve League Care Home, Western Urgent Care, Family Intervention Social Work Team, North West Care, Western HSC Trust Homecare Team, Lisnaskea and Tempo District Nursing Teams, Lakeside Medical Practice, Barnlea House, Barbour Court, Western Trust Community Nursing Team, Social Services Over 65’s Team, Irvinestown Medical Practice, WHSCT Mental Health Team, Creamery House (Kesh), WHSCT Community Care Team, Praxis Mantlin Cottage Kesh, Grann Abbey Nursing Home, Positive Futures, Fivemiletown Surgery, Enable Care Services, RVH Spinal Unit, Tempo & Brookeborough Surgery, The Leonard Cheshire Trust, St Michael’s Parish Community Workers, Praxis Lisnaskea, Travena Lodge Private Nursing Home, Lisnaskea Social Work Team, Enniskillen Food Bank, Westbridge House, Marie Curie Local Nurses. Dr Cathcart & Partners, Drs Mallon & McConville, Drs Toal & Maguire, Devenish Medical Practice, Erne Health Centre Treatment Room, Erne Health Centre District Nurses and Health Visitors. As well as a large number of individual carers and health care workers in Fermanagh and neighbouring counties.
SPECIAL THANKS TO (apologies for omissions):
Thanks To: My wife Edith … who had (and still has) a lot to contend with! Thanks To: Janette Walker, William Armstrong, Jason McVitty, Neil Reid, Lisa Donaldson, David Morrison, Alison Morrison, Hannah Morrison, Simon Gray, John Thompson, Davie Beattie and Hugh McCaffrey for giving up their time. Thanks To: Quinn Packaging, Killyhevlin Lakeside Hotel and Bunzl Rafferty Hospitality Products for donating products and materials and to St Michael’s College for the loan of their Laser Cutter. Thanks To: Yvonne & Derek Bowles, Cynthia McDonald & Kate Abraham for supplying much appreciated treats for the busy team of volunteers.
Biggest Thanks Of ALL To: The hundreds of individuals and dozens of clubs, societies, community groups, sports teams and businesses who donated to our fundraising at a time of great uncertainty.
THANK YOU ONE AND ALL Stay safe and look after each other David