Sewing group creating scrubs for NHS and medical staff put out urgent plea for more funds

Nearly 1,000 sets of scrubs have been sewn together by 130 volunteers co-ordinated by Gosport resident Lin Gell, who started the Facebook group Team Scrubbers Serving Southampton/Portsmouth areas with Scrubs.

With hundreds of sets already being delivered to Queen Alexandra Hospital and University Hospital Southampton, the group has been flooded with requests from desperate GP surgerys and care agencies and needs more funds to keep their vital work going.

Lin, who is working 18 hours a day on this, said: ‘It’s just all taken off like mad. I’ve got scrubs coming out of my ears and people coming out of my ears but I’m running out of money.

‘We just can’t keep up with the demand, we can keep up with the sewing but not the money we need to buy the fabric.’

Sewers are joining in from as far afield as Romsey, Emsworth and the New Forest with the community effort, with the main barrier being the money needed to buy materials despite Lin putting in her own money to kickstart the project and generous help from the Gosportarians.

Mum-of-one Charlene Lomas from Gosport said the price of fabric has skyrocketed in the past few weeks as demand has risen dramatically.

The keen costume-maker is in isolation due to her asthma, but has enjoyed finding a way to help.

Charlene said: ‘It’s a real shame that it’s needed but here we are. I didn’t realise just how desperate people were for these scrubs - we have got almost 1,000 made and it’s not enough.

‘Staff are just so grateful. There’s no value on that, it’s just amazing and we want to keep going as long as possible.

‘It’s about helping to protect our front-line workers. They’re woefully undersupplied with PPE which we can’t do anything about, but this is something we can do.’

Donations can be made through PayPal friends and family to [email protected] or through the Gosportarians who are taking donations for the scrubs. For more information visit their Facebook page or join the Scrubbers group.

Rachel Webber and her 13-year-old daughter Abigail, Gosport’s Young Citizen of the Year, are self-isolating at home as Abigail is in the high-risk category due to health issues.

They are both usually busy helping in the community, so have been taking this time to sew together bags for the scrubs to be put in when they need to be washed at Gosport War Memorial Hospital.

Rachel, who is Gosport Asda’s community champion, said: ‘It’s been a wonderful opportunity to help out our local hospital.

‘I think we can make something positive come out of this and treat it as an opportunity to strengthen our relationships as a family and also support the heroes in our community.’

A message from the Editor

Thank you for reading this story on portsmouth.co.uk. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to portsmouth.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to local news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit our Subscription page now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.