NHS heroes at Royal Preston Hospital have received a share of 4,000 welfare packs containing donated items valued at around £85,000.

The packs were put together for frontline clinical staff battling the coronavirus pandemic by the fundraising team working for Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Charity, which includes Rosemere Cancer Foundation and Baby Beat.

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A host of companies and individuals donated their money, time and services to the project, which also benefitted staff at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital.

The packs contained toiletries, socks donated by Burnley’s online fashion store Boohoo.com, and snacks gifted by Rosemere Cancer Foundation’s coffee shop and the Baby Beat shop.

There were also cupcakes donated by North Wales-based cupcake company The Cake Crew. Their collection and transportation from the company’s Bala bakery was made for free by R&B Logistics of Stockport.

In addition the packs contained a water bottle sponsored by Preston company Gafoor Ltd, which also donated 1,500 drawstring bags, plus hand sanitiser gifted by Preston pharmacy chain Pharmalogic and an NHS heroes letter of thanks, printed for free by Huddersfield company Media 21a.

The goods were stored and packed at storage solutions company Brysdales, which donated free space at its Britannia Buildings complex in Chorley. It also gifted 2,500 plastic tote bags and enabled staff to help with the packing and delivery to the hospital sites.

Read more: Free supermarket for NHS heroes to open at Fulwood Central

Some of the toiletries – hand creams and moisturisers – were bought by Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Charity with a £20,000 donation from the Bhailok family. They were items requested by staff to help them treat pressure sores and chapped skin behind their ears from wearing protective face and eye masks, and soothe sore hands from constantly using sanitiser.

A donation of £5,000 from BAE Systems was also spent on other practical items.

Read more: BAE Systems is manufacturing face shields to help the NHS workers on the front line

Recipients of the welfare packs took to social media to express their gratitude.

Paula Wilson, Head of Charities and Fundraising for LTHTR, said: “We wanted to show our thanks and appreciation to all the frontline staff working in our two hospitals.

“Our focus is usually on fundraising to benefit patients. Our charity family
works to fund equipment for our hospitals that the NHS cannot afford to buy.

“We also fund other services and research plus work to improve our treatment environments to make life better for patients, but I am delighted that we are able to offer support to our frontline colleagues. They are working so hard and putting others first during this unprecedented health crisis, we felt we needed to give them some of our help and attention.

“From the overwhelmingly supportive response we have received from local individuals and businesses, we know that this is something the public very much agrees with us on.”

Read more: See the latest Preston news and headlines

What do you think of the welfare packs? Are you someone who has benefitted? Let us know in the comments.