At this time of furlough and time filling, some Royal Ulster Yacht Club members on Belfast Lough decided not to squander an opportunity and found they could turn their hands to producing items for the NHS and friends.
Claire Storey, in response to a post from groups making scrubs, borrowed a sewing machine and with help and guidance from a neighbour started sewing. She began with scrubs made from bed linen donated by friends and managed to make the best of the great weather and sewed in the garden. Her scrubs went to the Covid Paediatric and A&E Wards in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. Claire’s husband has asked her to make face masks for his office staff when they return to work, and she will be donating some to friends. The masks are not for not suitable for front-line workers but adequate otherwise.
Claire Storey's scrubs
Mae and Walter Burke have set up a duet production line assembling much-needed visors. Friends had told them that a joinery firm in Bangor, Dougan Contracts, were making visors and they offered to help assemble them. Walter says the most difficult part is the headbands, but it has not deterred them from producing several hundred. The face shields are distributed free of charge to local frontline health workers.
Mae Burke
Also making face masks for friends and family is Barbara Polly, who manages to fit production in with her day job as a nurse in a local surgery. She borrowed a sewing machine from her mother in law and makes them on her days off.
These are just a few of an army of volunteers producing items for the NHS and friends.
