One of the innovative projects funded by the recently formed Wessex Academic Health Sciences Centre (WAHSC) to tackle practical COVID-19 related issues has reached a major milestone and is now appealing for additional support from the community.
Since launching in May, the SouthMasks CV19 Support Group has processed over 1,000 orders for face masks and other personal protection equipment (PPE), fulfilling requests from across Southampton as well as hospitals in Middlesex, Chichester and Salisbury.
The Group received £500 from the WAHSC to produce face masks for key workers in the community, thanks to a proposal submitted by Professor Roxanne Carare in the Faculty of Medicine. The Group has an extensive network of sewing volunteers across the community but is in need of delivery drivers to collect and redistribute materials, donations of unwanted fabrics (curtains, bed sheets, duvet covers, t-shirts, etc) and more sewing volunteers.
“It’s all happened very quickly and has just grown and grown,” says Tammy Thomas, SNIFSII Trial Manager in Medicine, and Chair and Founder member of the SouthMasks Group. “We’re providing a service for the community to protect the community.
“We have a great team of sewing volunteers working in their own homes, headed by an amazing lady named Anne Waller. We also have a volunteer driver who collects materials and helps to redistribute the masks when they’re ready but we are asking for more people to come forward to give some time – and materials, if you have them – to help us fulfil the many orders we’re receiving daily.”
If you are able to help the SouthMasks website is the best way to connect with the Group. Individuals and organisations can also request masks via the website.
The Group is grateful to the support of Professor Carare and her Research Group for supporting this project and helping to set up the website.
