Protective visors made by Scarborough UTC and local business given to town's hospitals and care homes

Protective visors and safety glasses were distributed to hospitals and health care groups in Scarborough thanks to a Yorkshire-wide effort.
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The personal safety equipment was relayed with the support of Scarborough Business Ambassadors, Scarborough UTC and other volunteers.

The equipment was provided for staff at Scarborough Hospital, Cross Lane Hospital, St Catherine’s Hospice, St Cecilia’s Care Group and others.

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Some of the gear was specially-manufactured in Scarborough at the UTC engineering workshop by Rob Shephard, director of engineering at the college who devised face visors with material from its industry-based sponsors.

The protective masks.The protective masks.
The protective masks.

He was assisted by John Wallis of Make it Personal, the retailer based at South Bay, who is a parent of one of the students at the UTC, as well as Major Tony Viney, who is supported by the South Bay Traders' Association (SBTA).

Major Viney said: “We now have enough material to make about 3000 of these lightweight masks for our heroes fighting Covid-19 across the borough.

"The first batch of 300 have already been delivered to Scarborough Hospital and are in use.

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"The masks have been designed to be ultra lightweight and allow for the rapid swapping of the screen and the wearing of glasses.

The PPE which has been created.The PPE which has been created.
The PPE which has been created.

It is our hope to not only support Scarborough Hospital, but also care homes and hospices across the borough ."

John Senior MBE Chairman of the SBTA said: "This is a fantastic community effort and just shows what can be achieved with a little ingenuity and a lot of hard work!

"John Wallis and his team are doing a brilliant job supporting those who are risking their lives on the NHS front line."

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An initial batch of 300 was delivered to Scarborough Hospital with the assistance of Matt Marks, a senior member of the Scarborough lifeboat crew.

In addition, 11,000 face masks were distributed to the region’s hospitals with the combined actions of the Ambassadors, North Yorkshire County Council and the NHS, in conjunction with a manufacturer of medical equipment in Leeds, the support of Rab Scott, of South Yorkshire-based Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and the Redcar-based Centre for Process Innovation.

Peter Wilkinson, chairman of the Scarborough Business Ambassadors, said: "These two efforts - those of the UTC and the regional co-operation with the support of our friends industry - reflect a great coming together to help our essential and vital health workers to stem the tide of the coronavirus."

Lee Kilgour, principal of Scarborough UTC, praised Rob Shephard for his extra-ordinary contribution. "He immediately volunteered to create the visors, utilising the materials we had to hand. It has been a big task, and thanks to the help of others, we created a considerable amount of protective gear for health care workers."

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Spare protective eyewear can be donated to the UTC for distribution, and sheets of between 0.5mm and 1mm thick polypropylene sheeting in any colour are still needed.

Scarborough's Cartridge World was among those donating A4 acetate sheets to the UTC.

If you have any spare stock to donate, please contact Simon Bull at [email protected] or phone him on 07768835822 for collection/drop-off. If you have the materials and/or capability to produce this product please message him.

Donations of spare safety glasses have also been distributed by Scarborough companies and were also distributed.

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In total hundreds of protective items have been given to frontline staff at the NHS and for Community Nurses, GPs, care comes and the hospice.

Contributors include Dean Road Podiatry, JM Engineering, McCain Foods, Stephenson Electrical Installation, SWC, Unison engineers and individuals such as Michelle Lowery, Richard Monkman, Deep Sea Electronics and more.

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