By Monica Chard
Last year we ran a heartening story about a group of local ladies who had got involved with sewing scrubs for the NHS.
Keen crafter, Ross Williamson, had got a group of clever U3A members and friends together. Their All Scrubbed Up team created scrubs from donated sheeting and bedding (all washed at 60c). Sets of scrubs were delivered to Ashford and St Peter’s hospital for medical and support staff, as well as patients. Eventu-ally care homes, district nursing and GP practices were also supported.
Fast forward 6 months and the ladies are at it again. This time, things have changed some-what, but the concept is the same. Ross was contacted in January by Ashford & St Peter’s Trust asking if they could supply more scrubs. She in turn contacted the volunteers from the original team to see who was available to help. But this time, rather than recycling bed-ding, Ross got in touch with a friend of hers, Lynda Yong (Fashion Workshop, Ascot) who kindly donated assorted fabrics from her stock. The result is stunning. Says Ross “We’ve now produced another 175 sets of scrubs and 80 children’s theatre gowns which wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing team of Viv, Val, Martha, Helen, Marvine, Diana, Linda, Chris, Barbara, Muffie, Anita, Debbie, Marilyn & of course Sylvia and Dorothy who helped me with the logistics”.
Ross had put on a socially distanced cream tea last year for volunteers, but with restrictions this time firmly in place she could not. Not deterred however, she instead put together a ‘take away’ version, which was delivered to each volunteer. The goody bag included a very thoughtful contribution of clotted cream and strawberry jam from Egham W.I.
Well done ladies for some inspiring work and actions so support our hard working NHS. We hope you enjoyed your well deserved cream tea.