April Update

Welcome to the Easter edition. We hope you all had the opportunity to safely see your friends and family in the garden or in the parks over the holiday. The easing of lockdown is really something to cautiously enjoy and anticipate, roll on the completion of the vaccination programme...

As you probably know we have been focussing on the Wellbeing bags this last month and with that in mind we thought you might like to get some insights into the Machine Team. These hard-working people, the backbone of our organisation, who churn out scrubs, bags, hats, headbands and masks and now Wellbeing bags.

Lucy heads up our machine team of around 115 people of all ages and backgrounds, a truly diverse and wonderful cross-section of our community, who came to the Scrubbery for their own reasons. We spoke to a few of these machinists and here are some of their stories, in no particular order, to reveal their back stories:-

Hilary — a retired history teacher, spent 38 years teaching in Burntwood in Tooting. Her father taught her to sew which is somewhat unusual. Throughout her career she took her sewing to the next level making costumes for school productions. However, as she said, there is a big difference between sewing costumes that only have to last for a couple of performances, to the sewing of scrubs. She feels she has really honed her skills and indeed learned new ones, courtesy of the Scrubbery. Going into the hub has kept her sane, especially as she lives alone — volunteering has worked two ways for her. She has received as much personally in lockdown, out of sewing scrubs, as she feels she has contributed in terms of her sewing. We are indebted to her especially, for remedial sewing work as well as the bags and scrubs she continues to produce.

Venetia — a professional wedding dress maker. At the onset of the pandemic Venetia joined the Wandsworth Scrub Hub but on its closure she moved to us, having heard about Rosie in the Putney Parish Newsletter. She very kindly rattles off scrubs for us – around 4 perfect sets per week. For her, working on the scrubs has kept her sane and given her a purpose in lockdown. Some of you might have seen the photo of the set of scrubs she made for her grand-daughter’s Easter Bunny.

Jacky — a retired Chemistry teacher. When Lockdown started she wanted to make scrubs to help out. She contacted Rosie to offer her services. What she liked about the Scrubbery was that it was all in kit form, no sourcing of materials or making patterns, it was all done for her. Throughout her life she has always made things from tents and rucksacks, to her own clothes on her 1970s machine. Sadly, however, that machine gave up the ghost with scrubs, and she had to invest in a new one, which she now used to churn out her sets. Her two daughters are both doctors so she makes scrub tops for them using Rosie’s pattern – thank you Rosie! In her spare time she likes to go birdwatching and listen to music. Sewing scrubs is a mindful process for her.

Graham — an ex Royal Navy Commander. Rosie and Graham have known each other for a very long time through church in Putney. Whilst Graham has done some sewing for the cause, labels, sizes and bits and pieces, his forte is the organisational and administrational abilities. He has organised the baskets for all the threads, helped look for premises when the move from the parish church was imminent, cleaned and hoovered the hub from top to bottom, and delivered kits by bicycle to people who are isolating or shielding. Whilst in the Navy he was taught to sew as Occupational Therapy at one point, and the bedside rug he made then, he passed to his mother, who passed it to his wife, and now he uses himself – a testament to the quality of the final product to have worked so hard for all these years and still be cherished.

Mary — a retired primary school teacher from Sheffield, who moved to London two years ago. She was already making scrubs from a pattern on the internet, and came across Rosie and the Scrubbery there. Since retiring Mary has developed her interest of using textiles in an artistic fashion, and pre- lockdown she held several exhibitions of her work as part of a national group of artists where you have to compete for your place. Very impressive.
As far as sewing for the hub, Mary has provided scrubs, bags and headbands but now mainly concentrates on scrubs working from home. For her it is lovely to be occupied during the dark days and has enabled her to gain structure and purpose to her week, some sense of routine and normality.

Edward — a retired scientist, working mainly for the BBC. He was particularly interested in helping people overcome their innate fear that science was beyond them, and developed a knack for simplifying it and explaining difficult concepts to people with no scientific training. His analytical nature and love of sailing led to him learning sewing skills and become an accomplished sailmaker. He has been absorbing new sewing skills at the Scrubbery with expert guidance from Rosie.

Selina — a retired Dentist. She specialised in children and adults with special needs, improving dental health for vulnerable people, and all her hard work in this field led to her receiving an MBE in 2014. She was presented it by Prince Charles in December of that year, which she says was wonderful as the Palace was full of fabulous Christmas trees all decorated with crowns and trinkets. She wanted to help the wonderful NHS and felt she needed to give something back. Now she has tackled scrubs, headbands, masks and bags – truly versatile!

Maureen — a retired bank manager, having started as a cashier, she worked her way up the hierachy for 36 years. She is a self-taught sewer, having always sewn her own clothes. She was a member of a sewing club in Putney, to share knowledge and learn new techniques. She is an active member of the Putney Women’s Institute, and as such heard an appeal for the Royal Hospital for Neuro Disability for people to make scrubs, but they only supplied a pattern, nothing else. However through the WI she came to the Scrubbery, where she was delighted to receive kits all pre-cut, instructions, and thread. She has never looked back and now concentrates on scrubs but has also branched out to hats when required. Volunteering has kept her sane and fit in lockdown – she walks to the hub to collect and deliver — it has got her through the isolation of living alone and the stresses of Covid-19. Some might like to know she has won competition prizes for her Ginger cake, which would explain why I have never come across it at the hub, it obviously goes so fast there is none left by Friday.

Sydney — works as an architect with her surveyor husband whilst bringing up her kids. She relocated from London to Dorset and was introduced to the Scrubbery by chance – she overheard another team member complaining about her machine and proffered a solution. She thought she was very competent at sewing, but was in fact rather rusty and had only really done costumes for the kids, though she had won a prize for her World Book Day costumes. This led to her receiving her first set to sew which brought on a week of terror, shutting herself away watching videos of “how to sew …” on YouTube, and reworking until she was hopeful that it would pass the quality test. When it did, with flying colours, she was SO relieved. Now she feels comfortable and relaxed enough to listen to calming audio books whilst churning out her quality scrubs – she is up to about 80+ sets to date and counting. Even her way of getting the kits is ingenious. She meets another sewer in a layby in Dorset, and they give finished work to a fish merchant who lives in Dorset but delivers to fish markets near the Scrubbery each week. Tracey then drives to the market in Sheen or Putney and swaps finished articles for more sewing to be taken back to Dorset, double plastic-wrapped, to ride in the front cab of the fish van.

Some feedback from recipients of the Wellbeing bags:

Wow! Packages have arrived – they look lovely. Am thinking of giving them out after junior doctor forum next week – how do we credit you all officially for this wonderful effort! Will def make our juniors feel appreciated – which they don’t always do – so thank you. [Whipps Cross]

Ali from Queens’ Hospital in Romford came to the Hub to collect his selection for the acute medicine team — who he says are exhausted and at rock bottom. He was on the edge of tears with gratitude for what we are doing and said how uplifted he felt just by visiting us. Well done to all involved!!

Monthly Milestones:
347 Wellbeing bags delivered to those who need it most – so far!
We have delivered to :
West Middlesex
Hillingdon
St George’s University
Charing Cross
Luton and Bedford Crisis Team – Luton and Dunstable University Hospital (part of East London NHS for mysterious reasons)
North Middlesex Foundation Doctors
Lakeside Psychiatric Unit West Middlesex
Ealing Foundation Doctors
Queens Hospital Romford
Whipps Cross University Hospital
Newham University Hospital
St Charles’ Hospital
Brighton Hospital
Hammersmith Hospital

Sarah Owen, MP for Luton North (left) and Rachel Hopkins, MP for Luton South (right) delivering the scrubs and wellbeing bags for the Luton & Bedford Crisis team, after the constituency support manager, Adrees, kindly collected them from the Scrubbery.

Monthly Milestones:
347 Wellbeing bags delivered to those who need it most – so far!
We have delivered to :
West Middlesex
Hillingdon
St George’s University
Charing Cross
Luton and Bedford Crisis Team – Luton and Dunstable University Hospital (part of East London NHS for mysterious reasons)
North Middlesex Foundation Doctors
Lakeside Psychiatric Unit West Middlesex
Ealing Foundation Doctors
Queens Hospital Romford
Whipps Cross University Hospital
Newham University Hospital
St Charles’ Hospital
Brighton Hospital
Hammersmith Hospital

Donations / Thank you – there are always so many generous organisations and people to mention, apologies if I miss anyone:

This Works for their very generous pallet sized donation of skincare products
Oral B and Dawn Chambers for their lovely donations of toothbrushes and toothpaste
Michael O’Mara for their mindful and thought provoking books
Ren and Tilli McCann for their fabulous skincare goodies
Selina Sufraz – the Park Dental Practice for toothpaste and spreading the word
British Airways – for a lovely consignment of White Company care products
Moo Goo – loads of ideal-sized skincare products and Lauren the Customer Service Executive who made it happen
Neals Yard Remedies UK – for their wonderful hand rub supplies
BetterYou – for their Vitamin D sprays – so exactly what is needed
Sutton Evergreens – a huge thank you to them for selecting us as a recipient of a large financial donation, which we have and are continuing to use to source supplies and wellbeing specific items for our bags.
Waitrose in Surbiton, Esher and Richmond – all of whom let Lucy loose in store or donated direct
Tesco – New Malden – thank you to Shankari Vishnu the Customer Manager
Asda Roehampton – thank you to Jasmine the Community Champion
Sir Paul Beresford for a kind donation of a large quantity of toothpaste
Alex Voice – for his continued commitment to the cause – we must receive Amazon packages with his name on it most week – very kind.
The congregation of St Margaret’s church – they sent us lots of bags and boxes of all sorts of kind gifts
Smile Dental Worcester Park – made possible by Sarah the practice nurse
Huel Bars – courtesy of Ele - ideal in size and as well as being a health giving boost
Hayley, Customer Experience Consultant at Molton Brown
Naseema Callaghan at Kew Dental for generously donating dental supplies
Maria Raymond at Just Care Beauty for a whole range of personal care items
The Old Court House Dentist in Dorking again for dental supplies for the Wellbeing bags.
This Works and Vicki Harman – for a massive donation of skincare and Wellbeing items – sensational!

Scrubbery Updates from Rosie:
A meeting facilitated by our MP, Fleur Anderson, with the NHS England and Improvements Stakeholder Engagement Team; NHS Estates and Facilities, Commercial Directorate, with their head of Soft FM Strategy & Operations; Estates and Facilities COVID-19 and EU Exit PMO team for NHS England and NHS Improvement took place early in March. A wide-ranging conversation covered how the laundry services managed supply during the first wave and how they were meeting demand now. As with the earlier discussions with the NHS supply chain managers, they insisted that they have adequate supply now, although our order board suggests that this is not quite so. The conversation moved to trying to discover why some trusts and organisations were still having difficulty getting the scrubs they need. It was agreed that London trusts have more supply issues than other areas of the country, and they have said that they were trying to evolve their systems to better manage distribution so that the supply was more even.

Rosie pushed for uniformity of colour across job roles and consultation with health care workers over ideal scrub design, as well as whether they should be classified as PPE. Whilst scrubs are unlikely to become PPE, because that would require them to meet additional standards, the design is under review, and Rosie has already fed into this review with the potential to advise further. In April the review document was released and can be seen here. If you or someone you know would like to have their say on uniform, either email nationaluniforms@supplychain.nhs.uk or complete the survey here. You can read the National Healthcare Uniform Proposal here (pdf). We will be sending these links to everyone we have supplied with scrubs, please also share as widely as you can to get the most comprehensive response possible.

Rosie was interviewed on BBC Radio London on Saturday 17th April, as she has been selected by Wandsworth Council as their Community Hero of 2020. You may still be able to catch this excellent interview on the BBC Sounds app. Navigate to 07:49 in the feed to get to the start of the slot.

Once again thank you for your incredible support, generosity, time and enthusiasm, as the first year under new rules passes, our work continues and your contribution makes it all possible. If you want to contribute to the bags don’t forget to go to our Amazon Shop and select the goodies you want to purchase for the bags from the carefully selected items shown on our page