Unsung HERO
A mum who started a collection to thank NHS staff as they battled to cope during the coronavirus outbreak has now reached more than 30,000 key workers – and she’s not done yet.
Victoria Hanson’s Hampers for Heroes idea has grown from offering hand cream to nurses to delivering hundreds of care hampers to thousands of under-pressure staff. She now wants to expand the scheme nationally to make sure the heroes working behind the scenes are not forgotten again.
“We want to help people we take for granted, even post-Covid, whenever that might be,” she said.
“We want them to know we are thinking of them.”
Victoria, 44, from Solihull, West Mids, works as a business psychologist, but when the pandemic struck, she found her diary emptied.
Even with four children aged
CREAM OF THE CROP Valiant Victoria
between three and 15 to look after, she found herself needing something else to fill her time.
When she spotted a social media post from a nurse showing how she and her colleagues were suffering with sore hands, Victoria saw a chance to help and began collecting hand cream donations. Within 10 days she had gathered an incredible 3,000 hand creams.
“I wanted to make sure they were distributed fairly and to the people who needed them so I started a Facebook page called Hampers for Heroes and it grew from that,” she said.
Victoria was joined by a team of helpers including her husband James and children packing in her garage. At the peak there were around 45 of them putting together the hampers, which always include a box of Cadbury’s Heroes as well as snacks, treats, pamper items and stationery or socks.
In the first 100 days of lockdown her hampers reached more than 20,000 NHS staff and since then they’ve got them out to thousands more across the West Midlands, including its Air Ambulance Charity.
Now Victoria and her team need more funds and have launched a new plea for donations amid the second wave.
She says: “We want to reach as many staff as we possibly can and we are determined not to disappoint anyone this Christmas.”