Producing PPE against Covid-19

Started by Leon, 07 April 2020, 03:32:42 PM

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Leon

07 April 2020, 03:32:42 PM Last Edit: 19 March 2021, 08:51:05 PM by Leon
We've got some good news today! We've been looking for ways to help out in the current situation and after a few tests and discussions over the weekend, we are now able to produce PPE/face shields which we will be giving out to local medical facilities.

The first batch have been passed to a local hospice for them to confirm that they're happy with them and then we'll have the green light to produce a lot more.

We expect to be able to produce around 200 face shields per day and we've got enough material here for 2000 of them. Adele's mother has worked in the NHS for almost 40 years, so we're really excited about being able to help her colleagues in the frontline.

The only bad news is you've got to look at my ugly mug wearing one...

UDPATE: The hospice have come straight back with a resounding 'Yes please!' so we've dropped 100 shields over to them today.  50 are going to the phlebotomy department of the hospital tomorrow morning and we've had enquires for more to other facilities.

UPDATE: We've had a lot of people asking if they can donate towards the costs on this, so we've set up a GoFundMe page to raise the £650 needed for the next batch of materials.  This will give another 2000 shields and keep us going for the next 3 weeks.  Hopefully things will have calmed down by then and the traditional supply routes can kick back in.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/producing-ppeface-shields-for-the-northeast

UDPATE: The hospice have come straight back with a resounding 'Yes please!' so we've dropped 100 shields over to them today.  50 are going to the phlebotomy department of the hospital tomorrow morning and we've had enquires for more to other facilities.

Update on the PPE production Veterans In Crisis Sunderland came down today to pick up 200 face shields, which will be going out to all of the GP Surgeries in Sunderland. Yesterday we dropped 100 at Teesside Hospice and 50 went to the Phlebotomy Dept at James Cook University this morning.

PPE Update (Monday): It's been a busy one today with 460 face shields going out to a variety of facilities.  The help from our volunteers has really helped increase production so we should be able to continue at 400-500 per day for the foreseeable. We've got more material arriving tomorrow as well.  Today's volunteers were our very own Dave , plus Scott! Scott used to do a bit of casting work for us but now works for Darlington Council in their safeguarding team. Some of you might have also seen him on the Colonel Bill's stand at some of the wargaming shows!

PPE Update (Tues): A lot of prep work today with almost 1000 clear shields ready to go with the lasered headbands.  We've got nearly 2000 more booked in so we'll keep producing these as fast as we can!

PPE Update (Wed): Today's been a productive one with 570 face shields sent out.  Thanks to today's volunteers Mike and Jackie!  This couple work for us casting and packaging usually, but they gave up their Wednesday evening to help out with the face shield production.

PPE Update (Thurs): Today we were joined by our local MP, Jacob Young! Jacob had volunteered to come along for a few hours and help us prep the face shields, so it was great to meet him and have a chat.  Jacob and Rachel got through several hundred shields during their shift, which will be heading out to a variety of facilities over the coming days. 

PPE Update (Fri): We've put out a load of batches today, helped by our volunteer team of Kath and Rachel! We'd like to give a big thanks to Rachel Austin as this was her 4th volunteer shift for us so far. She's still working her day job at Hartlepool Deaf Centre as well, so we really appreciate her giving up her spare time.

We've also teamed up with the guys at Warbases who will now be providing equipment to their local area up in Scotland.  We've used some of our GoFundMe donations to send them a batch of materials, so today we had their first update as well.

PPE Update (Mon): We've sent out over 800 face shields today! 550 from us here in the north-east and another 292 sent out by Warbases up in Scotland. We had Dave and Scotty on the volunteer shift today, so thanks to them both for their hard work.

PPE Update (Tues): Today was one big batch with 400 face shields going out. Thanks to Carl who was on volunteer duty today! Tomorrow's batches will see us pass the 4000 mark, so thanks again to everyone who donated to the funding campaign.

PPE Update (Wed): Today saw over 600 face shields sent out by the combined 'Wardraken' team.  We've got more booked in for tomorrow so we'll keep the laser machines going!

PPE Update (Thurs): Over 500 face shields went out today from us here in the north-east and Warbases up in Scotland.  Today's volunteers were Jess Jordan Gelders and Jimbo Russell Jordan! Jess had recently started her own The Fibro Guy clinic but had to temporarily shutdown due to the Corona situation, while Jimbo is a musician whose gigs have all been cancelled. So they were happy to come and help for an afternoon!

PPE Update (Fri): We've been seeing the requests slow down this week so hopefully the traditional PPE supply routes are starting to catch up again.

PPE Update (Mon): We're getting on top of the production so for the first time in 3 weeks we've got face shields prepped and ready to go straight out! The requests are slowing down as the regular PPE channels get up to speed, but we'll keep going for now until the material runs out (at 6000 produced) and see whether we're still needed.

PPE Update (Tues): Just a small update for today, with 100 shields given to Premier Care Homes for their staff.  We've got 260 booked in for tomorrow, so the supply continues!

PPE Update (Wed): Today we had 220 face shields going out, including 100 posted out.

PPE Update (Thurs): We had 200 more going out today.

PPE Update (Sunday): We'd like to thank everyone again for all of your donations, the response we've received has been incredible and we really appreciate your generosity during these difficult times.

We've seen the requests for the PPE really slow down over the last 7 days and we've only got 10 face shields booked in for this coming week. We've also got close to 300 face shields prepped and ready to go out as soon as folks need them. From talking to our local council it would seem that the proper PPE supply routes are getting back up to speed now, which is fantastic.

At this point we've decided to turn off the donations for the funding, as we've got more than enough here to pay for all of the material costs we've incurred so far. If something changes and we need to resume face shield production, we've got enough to pay for further material if necessary. We could also look at using some of the funds to purchase professional face shields and distribute those instead.

There will be a chunk of money left over which will be donated to charity. Once we've got the rest of the face shields sent out and things have calmed down a little, we'll be sending out a full costing breakdown so that you can see exactly where your donations have been spent and which charities we have donated to.

Thanks again for your support, it means so much to so many people currently on the frontline. We're all living in a strange world right now and to see everyone working together towards something positive has been fantastic to be a part of.

Final PPE Update!

The GoFundMe money was transferred to us last week so we've now been able to finalise the accounts and get the payments over to the charities. In total we produced 6000 visors which were distributed across 83 different facilities. Another 1000 visors were produced by the folks at Warbases and given out in their local area.

Once the costs and fees had been taken into account there was £2883.21 left from all of your donations. We've divided this among 4 charities and made the following donations:
£720.80 to NHS Charities Together (https://www.nhscharitiestogether.co.uk/)
£720.80 to Teesside Hospice (https://www.teessidehospice.org/)
£720.80 to Veterans In Crisis Sunderland (https://veteransincrisis.co.uk/)
£720.81 to The Trussell Trust (https://www.trusselltrust.org/)

We'd like to thank every single person who donated to this campaign. We were completely overwhelmed by the generosity of all of you, both within our wargaming community and beyond. Your support helped protect people working on the frontline and your money will now continue to benefit people in so many ways.

We'd also like to thank our volunteers who came along and gave up their free time to help clean and prep the visors. Rach, Kath, Dave, Scott, Mike, Jackie, Lynne, Carl, Jess, Jimbo and Jacob! A special thanks as well to Martin, Glenn and Diane at Warbases for getting involved.

Finally, the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over but there's some light at the end of the tunnel and we can start to see our friends and family again soon. And hopefully we'll be able to meet all of you somewhere down the line and thank you in person for your support!


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sunjester

Brilliant idea, well done to all at Pendraken.

Ithoriel

Quote from: sunjester on 07 April 2020, 03:38:09 PM
Brilliant idea, well done to all at Pendraken.

Hear! Hear!

Well done Pendraken.
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Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

Just don't slow down my order, I always wuz a selfish bastard......

And seriously - congrats, everything helps !  :)
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FierceKitty

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fsn

Hmmm. It's good. A great idea ... but it needs a little something.

A little paint job and ...


... or ...


... or just a little tinting and ...

On the right ... the red face mask ... on the right, no the other right ...


Seriously though, well done Leon and Milady's Mother hereafter to be known as "the Duchess".  =D> =D> =D>
Lord Oik of Runcorn (You may refer to me as Milord Oik)

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jimduncanuk

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Techno

Brilliant, Leon !  =D> :-bd =D>

Cheers - Phil

d_Guy

Well done, Leon. As to faces, I've seen worse.
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mollinary

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Duke Speedy of Leighton

Brilliant idea, well done all!  8)
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