‘Personal care’ items given to NHS workers on front line

MOISTURISER and shower gel will be delivered to NHS staff on the front line of the coronavirus crisis in a partnership between Unilever and the charity SalutetheNHS.

Some 500,000 “personal care products” from brands including Vaseline, Dove, Radox and Simple, will be distributed to medics in the coming weeks so they can freshen up after spending long shifts in uncomfortable and sweaty PPE. The items are being supplied for free by Unilever, the leading manufacturer, and assembled in 75,000 fully recyclable boxes, provided by DS Smith, which will then be delivered by Yodel to hospitals across the country and the homes of NHS staff who are self-isolating. Yodel is owned by the Barclay family, proprietors of the Telegraph Media Group, publisher of The Sunday Telegraph.

The initiative comes not long after SalutetheNHS delivered around 100,000 nourishing meal packages to front-line doctors and nurses in just four weeks.

Prepared by London-based catering company Absolute Taste, using ingredients donated by leading supermarket Tesco, the breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks are being dropped off at hospitals for hard-working staff to collect when their shifts end so they have one less thing to worry about after a long day. Ron Dennis CBE, the former McLaren Formula One boss, donated more than £1m to the project.

The aim is to get a total of one million meals to medics treating victims of the pandemic. Mr Dennis, who is cofounder of SalutetheNHS, said: “After long shifts in hot and uncomfortable PPE, these soothe and care packages will enable them to wash and care for themselves before perhaps enjoying one of our boost meals.

“We hope that this new contribution goes some way to help and thank the NHS front line as they do battle against this awful virus.”