Mum and son scrub up for NHS
A NEAT one-two between a mum and her footballing son has helped hundreds of NHS workers during the pandemic.
Charlie Smith, who plays for Rochdale AFC under 12s, and his mum, Kathryn, were behind a good idea which became a cottage industry.
Kathryn, a self employed interior designer and maker of soft furnishings, was asked by a friend to make wash bags and scrubs for key workers.
With Charlie’s help she got to work, but had to recruit an army of 500 volunteers to keep up with demand via the Facebook group ‘Your Sewing
Machine Needs You’ and word of mouth. Charlie’s club helped to send out out a message for help too.
The work carried on throughout the summer, with the last of their items - rainbow-style theatre gowns for the Children’s Ward at the Royal Oldham Hospital - being made throughout August and September.
After dedicating more than six months to help NHS and key workers, Kathryn is now focusing again on her own business.
Rochdale stars Jake Beesley, Harrison Hopper and Alex Newby, as well as Siobhan McElhinney, Dale’s Community Trust assistant manager, joined Kathryn and Charlie at the hospital to make the final delivery.
Kathryn said: “We were making plain scrubs from fabric that I was buying with the money we raised through our JustGiving Page, then following the publicity we started getting, we got asked to make some scrubs to go to Wales.
“Whilst doing that, the group out in Wales got donated fabric by Chris Evans, the radio presenter and celebrity. During the pandemic, Chris and his son Noah have donated thousands and thousands of pounds worth of scrub fabric that they had printed with rainbows on.
“We were then sent some of that, which we used to make the rainbow scrubs for the Royal Oldham Hospital. They also went to the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.”
Kathryn has thanked the army of volunteers, who she says have made thousands of items.
“A lot of the people who have been part of the group are older people who have been isolating, so for them, it became a bit of a lifeline for them. They couldn’t see their families or friends, so it became a routine for them. I still have people now who don’t want to stop.”