January 2025 News

Happy Birthday to The Scrubbery. We turned 5 on January 26th 2025.

In that time we have made:

•        Over 25,000 scrub garments 

•        11,246 masks excluding those in wellbeing bags 

•        7,418 scrub hats 

•        2,300 well being bags 

•        5,164 bags for laundry or Foodbank 

•        25+ camouflage nets

•        613 trench candles

•        2,274 knitted garments & blankets, predominantly for children

•        Thousands of other items including headbands, scrunchies, children’s pyjamas and adult and children’s procedure gowns 

As well as organising many, many, many shipments of general aid to Ukraine, including a donated van, and 10 lorry loads of unwanted NHS medical goods (worth £2.5m).

January has been quieter partly due to the ongoing work of clearing the corridor and the viewing platform storage area and partly because we have had to take it easier due to all the nasty bugs doing the rounds over Christmas and New Year.

Rosie is still on the hunt for storage space outside the school if anyone knows of anywhere suitable. We have been offered a small space by our lovely curtain man Charl, but this is only suitable for short term staging of packed shipments awaiting the link with transport.

Maybe not this much, but some storage space is needed…

Ukraine

Rosie has had a request through Nataliya Pipa’s office (MP in Lviv) to work with a local military hospital. They have asked for adapted clothing suitable for injured patients as below:

1)         Knitters: Large button-fastened knitted socks are needed to fit over plaster casts. A couple of volunteers have kindly knitted samples and modified a pattern for us and the pattern and buttons are available from Rosie for anyone who would like to knit with Aran wool or two strands of double knitting. Donations of Aran wool are also enthusiatically welcomed.

2)         Fleece blankets: Donations of fleece blankets to make bedsocks are also welcome. Rosie has been sent sample garments from a group working in Ukraine and we will replicate these.

3)         T shirts: We are looking for new T shirts in bulk. These could be T shirts with an out- of- date logo, for example from a corporate event or sports team, or ones printed with an error from a faulty print run. Maybe someone would be prepared to contact print companies for their remaindered stock?

4)         Making boxer shorts with Velcro seams for injured patients:

Rosie is working on a suitable pattern for these.

There is a group in Ukraine who are creating patterns and making all these adapted garments. They would appreciate any help we can give them. Seeing examples of this clothing brings home how difficult it can be to find any suitable and comfortable adapted clothing for the seriously injured.

Scrub tops:

The shipment of no longer required short-sleeved scrub tops from Cardiff University biomedical department has finally arrived, negotiations started last June! We were expecting a few boxes but Rosie became a little cautious when the University mentioned that one of their suppliers would arrange shipping. After enquiry it transpired that a pallet-full was being sent, which is fabulous, but also complicated given our space constraint. They are being triaged at the moment by size and colour - working up any repairs and attaching size labels as necessary. We will then work out the lays to cut trousers enabling us to send sets of scrubs which will be more useful than tops on their own.

Rosie is looking for rolls of rainbow fabric to cut as this will be the best match to the array of different coloured tops.

On January 26th, our birthday, we send another shipment of aid to Ukraine, including a camouflage net, hundreds of trench candles and a generator, which arrived at the last minute. Thanks very much to all who donated, particularly Lettie and Charlie who arranged the generator. It seemed most fitting to ship on our birthday and as good a way as any to start our new year.

The next aid delivery is going out on February 18th. If you have been holding on to aid items because of our storage issues, we will be able to accept the goods the week beginning February 10th for packing and sorting out shipping and customs documents.

Outreach

 This week Rosie gave a talk at a London School of Paediatrics event at Charing Cross Hospital. The theme was supporting resident doctors through their training, with the hope that attendees leave with new creative ideas about developing practices and skills that can help them in all areas of their work and beyond – and in turn improve the care they give patients. Rosie spoke about the Scrubbery’s journey and who, how and where we have helped people in so many different ways. The idea was to inspire the doctors and give them ideas on ways they can help themselves and others too.

The talk was exceptionally well received. The organiser send this message afterwards, “Hi Rosie, I just wanted to say another huge thank you for your time yesterday. Your session was incredible, there was so much for everyone to take away from it, and it was referenced and linked back to several times in the afternoon. So a huge thank you from us all! “

This event was a chance to consider additional ways in which we might support healthcare professionals and find ways to collaborate with them.