PPE heroes boost campaign to bring Chemotherapy Services to Rugby's hospital - The Rugby Observer

PPE heroes boost campaign to bring Chemotherapy Services to Rugby's hospital

Rugby Editorial 26th Feb, 2021   0

A CRAFTY group of seamstresses which formed at the start of the pandemic to make Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) has donated £1,000 to a charity appeal to bring Chemotherapy Services to the Hospital of St Cross.

A group of friends from Rugby Theatre formed the Coventry and Rugby Scrubbers group to sew scrubs and scrub bags for the NHS.

And when they raised more money than expected, they jumped at the chance to donate some of the surplus to the Sapphire Appeal run by the Friends of St Cross charity.

Group members Michele Goode and Sandy Weaver said: “Word soon got around and we teamed up with the Friends of St Cross (FOSC) and the Rugby PPE Response to produce a wide range of PPE for the Hospital of St Cross and many others.




“We set up a fundraising page to buy material, but such was the volume of material that we received from the community that we actually raised more money than was needed before the demand for PPE was met by the NHS Supply Chain.

“Then just before Christmas, the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire Trust awarded the Rugby PPE Response an Outstanding Care and Achievement Award (OSCA) – and at the presentation we met up again with FOSC chairman Willy Goldschmidt, who was one of the founders of the Rugby PPE Response.


“Willy told us the great news that the Friends had committed £200,000 to help bring Chemotherapy Services to St Cross and that they had recently launched the Friends Sapphire Anniversary Appeal.

“We decided there and then to donate £1,000 from our surplus funds to the appeal.”

Willy Goldschmidt said: “It was great to meet up with Michele and Sandy again to celebrate the recognition for the way in which the community pulled together to support the NHS and local care homes when the pandemic struck.

“It is even better to know that the sense of community spirit that the Rugby PPE Response helped to generate is living on and the Coventry and Rugby Scrubbers have joined a growing number of organisations and businesses which are continuing to support our local hospital through the Friends of St Cross.”

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