Customers visiting the NHS Heroes Support Hub in Oliver’s Place, Preston, got a bit shirty when it came to bagging its latest donation!
Bamber Bridge-based company BusinessGiftUK.com gifted a consignment of 200 black t-shirts emblazoned with the social distancing slogan “If you can read this you are too close”. They were supplied by Blackpool company PF Concept UK.
The t-shirts, which came with a value of £9.99 each, were added to shelves stocked with a range of fresh fruit and vegetables, bread and cakes, other non perishable food, drinks plus toiletries and household products also all donated and also free to staff working for Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Steve Ward, MD of BusinessGiftUK.com and a longterm supporter of Rosemere Cancer Foundation, said: “When I read about the hub being a free mini supermarket for our local NHS heroes, I wanted to support it and thought the t-shirts would be ideal as their slogan reminds people to observe the two metre distance rule.
“I would like to thank PF Concept UK. Its collaboration and subsidy enabled us to make the donation possible.”
The NHS Heroes Support Hub is within walking distance of the Royal Preston Hospital, which is also home to Rosemere Cancer Centre, the region’s specialist cancer treatment centre.
The hub is run entirely by volunteers and was the idea of Preston’s Muslim community. It came about after the owner of a retail unit next door to the precinct’s B&M Bargains store offered its free use to Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Charity for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic. The hub opens mornings and evenings to follow clinical staff shift patterns.
Anyone wanting to donate items or time to the hub should first email donations@nhsheroeshub.co.uk. To observe non essential travel and social distancing rules, collections, timed drop-offs and volunteer slots are being prior arranged.