NHS Orkney takes delivery of 200 community-made laundry bags

NHS Orkney says is has been overwhelmed, over the past five weeks, by the amount of support it has received from the community.

One example of this came earlier this week, when Keren Lacey-Brown and Sarah Cornish from Orkney Scrubs delivered over 200 laundry bags to The Balfour.

Keren and Sarah found each other on-line purely by chance and were both looking for a way to help and support the NHS, carers and other key workers in Orkney.

Keren, who has over 20 years’ experience of making exclusive children’s wear, said: “We both found ourselves looking into an initiative that was started by an A&E nurse down south to make scrubs.

“There had been a huge response and how we found each other on this site despite over 8000 posts I will never know – but we did, and Orkney Scrubs was born! We then discovered we lived less than 3 miles from each other”.

Keren and Sarah set up a Facebook page and posted an advert asking if any home sewers/seamstresses would like to join them.

“The response was overwhelming,” Keren continued.

“We received over 100 replies from some of the best professional and amateur sewers in Orkney! We then put out a post for unwanted bedding, sheets, pillowcases and cotton fabric and again Orkney answered.

“Creating Orkney Scrubs whilst observing physical distancing, self-isolation and shielding has not been easy, but neither of us are ones to shy away from a challenge; with the help of our team of sewers we started supplying a few nurses with laundry bags and are in the process of providing enough bags for everyone working at the hospital”.

Following the donation from Orkney Scrubs, Brenda Wilson, interim director of nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals said: “Thank you to each and every one of the volunteers, on opening we found many of the laundry bags had a personal message inside, your kindness is greatly appreciated and has brought a great deal of comfort to all our colleagues and the health board.”