Bury St Edmunds mother and daughter duo lead sewing group to produce hundreds of scrubs for West Suffolk Hospital
A Bury St Edmunds mother and daughter duo have led a community rallying effort to sew hundreds of scrubs for staff at West Suffolk Hospital.
Amanda Poole, 30, and her mum Karen Tate, 50, launched a Facebook page encouraging people to sew, deliver, collect and provide materials for scrubs.
After launching on April 1, the group has had more than 730 members with 170 scrubs completed last week – and they are on track to have made about 500 by the end of this week.
Amanda said: “We’ve been blown away by the number of men and women who are happy to give up their time and help do this. It’s amazing. We weren’t expecting quite so many people.”
The pair also run the Bury St Edmunds Covid-19 Community Aid Facebook page to help provide a network of support to those in need during the pandemic.
They were inspired to produce scrubs following a similar community initiative for Ipswich Hospital.
Karen initially purchased 80 to 100 metres of materials and they set up the Sew Scrubs for West Suffolk Hospital group.
“Neither my mum or I can actually sew,” Amanda said. “We’re purely organisers. We were hoping we would find some really kind volunteers.”
Companies have donated with Denny Bros providing 500 printed patterns and curtain makers Lisa Carter, from Star Curtains in Soham, and Jane Fiddian, from Curtain Maker Ltd in Bury, helped source materials.
They are also working with Lonton and Gray Sailmakers, in Burnham-on-Crouch, which can cut 100 sets of scrubs in an afternoon for sewing.
The group has had requests from other hospitals and GP surgeries.
Thanking everyone, Amanda said: “It’s been really nice to see people coming together and there’s a really nice community spirit.”
Sue Smith, head of fund-raising at My WiSH charity, said: “In these unprecedented times we’re going through many more sets of scrubs than ever before. This is an absolutely brilliant way of everyone pulling together and supporting our incredible NHS workers.”
