August News
Recognition and thanks, as we become more accustomed to being able to move around and resume our lives, it is good to focus on what we have achieved so far.
It is so cheering in these difficult times to read such tender, grateful and uplifting responses from the people we are helping, so as a feel good factor for us all, we thought we would capture some of them here. You have made the contribution that has made a difference in other peoples lives.
Dr Waleed Muhammud from Barts for the well being bags and messages of support they contained:
Dear Scrubbery Team,
First of all let me thank you all so much for such an amazing gesture, all of you are amazing.
When I opened the pack I was lost for words. I read the cards and it brought tears to my eyes, and made me feel really that there are people in the world somewhere who don't even know us, but care about us and want to reach out to us in simple ways like these to show their support for our profession. A pay rise or a pat on the back is not always what makes a difference, kind words and words of appreciations are better than anything.
I read the cards to my family and showed them that a lot of people support and care and that has made me enjoy my job even more, and I would like to thank you all again for such a beautiful gesture.
Best wishes
Dr Waleed Muhammad
Consultant Ambulatory Care Unit Barts Health NHS Trust, Newham University Hospital
Dr. Sila and Dr. Kumar modelling their pink rainbow scrub sets. They specifically requested pink tops if we could possibly accommodate them and they are thrilled with the result.
Bel Thurlow, Occupational Therapist from Cambridgeshire NHS in Luton/Bedford, sporting her rainbow ensemble
A message from St George’s University Hospital, the Consultant who wrote to us was Dr. Emma Evans, consultant anaesthetist. This was her message:
Hi Rosie thanks so much. We are using sewn hats to reduce disposables and to improve the personal element for staff and patients about being in theatre. We also have such a long journey towards Net Zero and the operating theatre environment is very disposable heavy. This is one of many steps to take and your generous donation is very much appreciated
I’ll let you know that they’ve arrived safely
Best wishes
Emma
We have sent her 1200 of the new style large scrub hats, embracing lockdown hair and promoting reuse. Each hat will last 52-60 wash cycles, saving 72,000 disposable hats going into landfill.
What we are, and have been, working on:
We have sent out items to
Scrubs to Ascot, Sandown and Queen Mary’s Hospital for their vaccination hubs.
295+ wellbeing bags were sent to Newham Hospital and Scamps Charity.
Mask extenders were despatched to both St Georges and Kingston Hospital.
The Royal London Hospital received some scrubs from us as part of our collaboration with the Sew Solid Crew.
Ealing Hospital, Hillingdon Hospital junior doctors, and Chartfield Surgery had plain scrubs from us.
1,200 scrub hats to St George’s University Hospital but they have asked for thousands so please keep sewing.
Keelby near Grimsby – we sent fabric waste to repurpose into toys and small items for hospital patients to enjoy. Some will also be used for mounting clear panels in facemasks for hearing impaired people.
Keelby consignment stacked up to be passed out the window to volunteer rider, Paul, who practiced with cushions to be sure he could fit all the packages. He rode the first leg of the delivery before passing them to Lee Howell who passed them on to Andy Wilmott to complete the delivery to Lou for us. The Volunteer Riders are amazing!
We collected 2000m of cloth from HMP Downview for repurposing, as it was destined for the incinerator. Thank you so much for James Wright for collecting it.
The Scrubbery, in collaboration with other organisations, is participating in working with HMP Downview, sending them rainbow cloth, patterns and guidelines as part of an ongoing initiative to work with prisoners to give them purpose, training and therefore job opportunities when they are released. Rosie is actively pursuing options with the Prison Service to partner directly with hospitals in the future, starting with HMP Wandsworth.
News :
Rosie and the Scrubbery have again featured in the press – this time in the online news page PutneySW15.com. They did a frontispiece about the Points of Light Award that Rosie and the Scrubbery were selected and honoured with in June. If you would like to read the actual article here is a link:
Visitors
We had a lovely constructive visit from Jane Andrews, our new pioneer curate for the Parish of Putney. It was a pleasure to meet with Jane and see the delight with which she embraced the work of the Scrubbery and the other charities that Parish Action supports. She did let slip that she can sew, so perhaps we may see her sometime if her schedule permits.
For those wondering what the role of pioneer curate entails, she will work with people who don't come to church, but who are interested in exploring the spiritual dimension of their lives, and how this can be represented in service to our communities.
Singer Sewing Hero – Rosie Taylor Davies
Rosie was nominated by Lucy H for this award and has been chosen for her unstinting hard work and contribution to the cause and society in general.
Singer will write a story about her contribution for the sewing press and other media, and also treat Rosie to a lunch with Great British Sewing Bee judge, Patrick Grant, in November They will also record a short video interview for sharing on social media and with the sewing community.
It all helps to spread the word, and draw attention to the cause. Thank you Lucy for the nomination!
Along with the reusable scrub hats we also supplied 101 teeny tiny hats for teeny tiny babies!
Donations / Thank you’s – there are always so many generous organisations and people to mention:
Firstly we need to thank Fleur Anderson again for her unstinting support and commitment to our cause – she was featured alongside Rosie in the Putney SW15.com article. It makes such a difference to have a vocal champion working with us.
We had a generous donation in via Anne H and Hachette of mindfulness books for the wellbeing bags which is hugely appreciated.
What can we say about Bernie – he is a hero – he picks up, delivers all our finished items, and returns our sewing bundles all across London and the home counties. Thank you so much it really is invaluable to us. He was off to Newham this time – not easy journeys from Putney.
Alex Voice for continued support in terms of all the packages that arrive from Amazon from him, for our well being bag contents. Thank you!!
We wondered how we would pick up some material offered to us in Somerset and put out a call on WhatsApp. Commander Shaw was serendipitously nearby visiting his sister and kindly picked it up. No matter where things are we always seem to find some way of getting them collected or delivered.
We can’t name everyone but Rosie also wanted to say a huge thank you to all the in house team who make so much possible by their commitment and hard work.
If you wish to contribute to the news, or to tell the wider community about yourself, please ping Lettie at lettieg@hotmail.com
If you want to contribute to the wellbeing bags don’t forget to go to our Amazon Shop and select the goodies you wish to purchase for the bags from the carefully selected items shown on our page