A Preston family is bottling up hand sanitiser and giving it away for free

Shahid (pictured right) with Mohammad Amla, dropping off a food bank donation

A Preston family is bottling up hand sanitiser and giving it away for free, in the battle against coronavirus.

Shahid Hussain, his wife Kubra, daughter Imaan and his nieces have so far distributed around 1,000 50ml bottles of sanitiser into the community.

Shahid said: “As the pandemic was becoming more widespread and people were panic buying, it became clear that the retailers no longer had hand sanitiser available to purchase.

“In mid-March, I purchased 20 boxes of liquid hand sanitiser. While it was great to have secured the sanitiser during the panic buying, there was a catch. The sanitiser was in 800ml plastic pouches designed for dispensers, and therefore I had to find a way to be able to bottle this up and distribute.

“Local e-cigarette retailer Tasty Vape on Aqueduct Street was kind enough to donate 1,000 new plastic bottles, and I also secured 200 plastic bottles separately.”

Some of the hundreds of bottles of sanitiser that the Hussains have filled

Shahid then had the mammoth task of transferring the sanitiser from the pouches into the 50ml bottles. Luckily, his family have been on hand to help, and every three days they have been bottling the liquid in batches of 100.

Imaan Hussain — Shahid’s 13-year-old daughter Imaan has been helping bottle the sanitiser

Initially, the sanitiser was distributed door-to-door within the Fishwick area. Hussain’s Grocer on New Hall Lane is now supplied with the bottles to give to customers free of charge. The shop has also got involved by purchasing hundreds of face masks, which are distributed free of charge with the hand sanitiser.

As a trustee at Aqsa Mosque in Fishwick Parade, Shahid has also recently been involved in setting up a foodbank and collecting food donations for NHS workers. He’s been working with fellow trustee Tahir Ali and other volunteers Haroon Patel, Muhammad Amla, Hanzala Ali and Feefa Ali.

For more information about the foodbank, visit the Preston Community Hub Foodbank Facebook page. To donate to the foodbank appeal, visit JustGiving.

What do you think of Shahid and his family’s efforts? Let us know in the comments.