A Nailsea mother and her army of volunteers are making and donating headbands to hospital workers to help them fight against coronavirus.
Suzie Reed, aged 33, was asked to make headbands for Weston General Hospital’s A&E consultants, nurses and doctors, when her friend Lucy said she was ‘so sore’ from wearing a face mask after a night shift at the hospital.
Determined to help, Suzie enlisted almost 40 sewers to make headbands for the A&E staff, and she is now appealing for fabric donations and funds to buy materials to continue the initiative.
Suzie Reed said: “My friend Lucy works at Weston A&E and she rang me after a night shift saying her face was so sore after wearing a face mask all night, that was when she asked me if I could make some headbands for her and the team, not just a few, but 60. I knew I needed some help.
“Now, we have 30 sewers on-hand making headbands from old bedding, stretchy dresses, legging-like material, which is ideal, and we need buttons, ribbon, old t-shirts, those types of dresses any sewing equipment anyone has to give away.
“We want to do as much as we can help, Lucy says everyone at A&E knows the worst is yet to come, there are long shifts involved and she’s shattered, they all are, so anything we can do is a massive help.
“So far, we’ve made 100 headbands for the staff at A&E, and they are are all so thankful for everyone’s help.”
Suzie’s enlisted Tara’s support, who has a material and fabric drop-off point in Weston, as well as Kara, who is managing the donation box outside the former Blue Room in Nailsea, in Crown Glass Shopping Centre.
Suzie added: “We’ve had so many donations over the past few days, but the material isn’t going to last forever, and this pandemic may last another 11 weeks yet.
“We’ve set-up a PayPal account to raise funds to buy the materials needed to make the headbands – so far, nearly £300 has been donated.
“People making headbands are willing to do it out of their own time, and anyone is welcome to join the cause, everyone involved has been amazing, they have been really, really great.”
For details to find the Weston drop-off point, email Suzie at suzieannbird@gmail.comTo donate money to buy materials, visit www.paypal.me/suzienhssewingteam
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