ALMOST 300 seamstresses and other volunteers across the York and Malton area are creating scrubs and visors to help protect key workers from coronavirus.

Three people in Malton, Chloe Shipley, her partner Kevin Jacques and Henny Clark, decided less than three weeks ago to make some scrubs and visors for their local GP practice, Derwent in Norton, and set up a Facebook page, Ryedale Scrubs for the Community.

The project has snowballed, and now involves 279 volunteers, including seamstresses and delivery drivers, some from as far away as Thirsk, Selby and Whitby, who have so far made just over 600 scrubs and 750 face visors, with Kevin making many with a 3D printing machine.

The kit has gone to places including York and Scarborough Hospital, GP and dental surgeries, care homes and police stations.

The project has also received £11,300 in donations for materials, including anonymous £2,000 and £1,000 donations and another £2,000 from the Rotary Club of Malton and Norton.

Chloe said: "It's gone crazy. We'll probably end up making a thousand scrubs and another thousand visors.

"This has been such an over whelming experience for everybody involved and we can not thank you all as a community for the support and team work. Businesses have been fantastic in coming forward to help and we now have Croots of England and The Pear Tree B n B on board helping us speed up deliveries.

"We have a number of different people who can sew and make the patterns as well as 3D print parts but we also need materials to ensure we can carry on supplying these essential items.

"The money from this crowd funder page is going directly on ordering and distributing materials and the aim is to keep going as much as we possibly can. Any donation is greatly appreciated as we have orders coming in very quickly."

A spokesperson for York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: "We are immensely grateful to all those volunteers and local businesses who are making and adapting scrubs and gowns, and to those who have donated spare equipment and other items.

"These donations will boost our stocks and provide a contingency should we reach a point where supplies are running low. Thank you to everyone who is making a contribution."

They added that keeping staff and patients safe was the top priority and teams of people were working round the clock to monitor stocks, place orders, contact suppliers and make sure supplies are distributed to staff that need them.

"At a national level, demand for supplies of PPE and other items such as scrubs remains high," they said. "However, we are working with the NHS supply chain and other suppliers, as well as other health and social care organisations, to ensure we have what we need for our staff. We continue to receive daily deliveries of PPE.”

*For more information or to volunteer to help, go to www.facebook.com/groups/ryedalescrubs, while to make a donation go to https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/material-for-scrubs.