Dedicated sewing team create thousands of poppy face masks to raise £5,000 for the Royal British Legion

Team Scrubbers, set up by Warsash seamstress Lin Gell, has raised £5,000 for the veterans’ charity through creating and selling more than 2,750 face masks adorned with the iconic flower.

The group has seen hundreds of sewers working day and night throughout the pandemic to create more than 10,000 sets of scrubs for key workers, thousands of face masks and more.

Lin, who set the group up during the first lockdown, presented a cheque to the Royal British Legion during the Remembrance ceremony in Gosport on Wednesday.

She said: ‘I’m so proud and amazed at what we have achieved. The poppy masks have been made by my ladies and gents all over Hampshire and sold all over Hampshire too.

‘We’ve had an amazing response from the public who have supported us as well by buying the masks.

‘Lots of my ladies are original so they started with me when I founded Team Scrubbers at the end of March. How amazing is it that they are still sewing after seven and a half months?’

The group has also managed to raise £500 for Crisis Food Gosport, which was set up in March in response to the pandemic.

To raise even more to support this food bank over the winter period, Team Scrubbers will be creating Christmas masks to sell and donating profits.

SEE ALSO: Volunteers producing more than 5,000 sets of scrubs for key workers call for more funds to keep up with demand

There are no plans for the hardworking team to stop their vital work, as demand is beginning to increase again with the latest lockdown measures.

Lin said: ‘We are still supporting the hospitals and surgeries with scrubs wherever we can but we actually do not have any funding now. I am so proud of what we have achieved and are continuing to do.

‘We have noticed a surge in uptake in the last couple of weeks where more people are starting to wear scrubs again.

‘We will carry on with what we can but if anybody has any money they would like to give us to help the NHS, we are happy to receive it.’

To find out more about how to donate or get involved, find Team Scrubbers Serving Southampton/Portsmouth NHS areas with Scrubs on Facebook.

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