Just before 8am yesterday morning, an articulated lorry rolled into the car park at Marie Curie’s West Midlands hospice, loaded up with personal protective equipment.
Inside were boxes containing 200,000 aprons and 120,000 masks – all donated by Mail Force.
The delivery marks the next stage of a Mail Force push, which will see 2.3million masks and 1.6million UK-made aprons given to charities over the coming weeks.
At Marie Curie, the PPE could not have been more welcome.
Marie Curie West Midlands Hospice welcomed Mail Force’s donation on Tuesday, with Collette Lehany, pharmacy technician; Kim Fowler, clinical nurse specialist; Andrea Salmon, ward sister; Karen Dale, health care assistant; and Lisa Shaymalan, occupational therapist ready to pick it up
The charity is the leading provider of end-of-life care for those with terminal illness. It has seen an increase in demand for its services during the coronavirus crisis while at the same suffering a drop-off in donations.
The charity runs nine hospices across the UK, offering specialist round-the-clock care as well as bereavement counselling, while its dedicated Marie Curie nurses care for patients in their own homes, providing hands-on care and vital emotional support.
All the staff, working in difficult conditions, need personal protective equipment as they look after patients suffering from dementia, cancer, motor neurone disease, heart failure, Parkinson’s disease and any other illness.
The delivery yesterday morning will now be split up and distributed to Marie Curie nurses and doctors around the country.
Andrea Salmon, ward manager at the West Midlands hospice, in Solihull, was grateful for the Mail Force donation.
‘It has been a very difficult time, it has been challenging, emotional and tiring for everyone,’ she said.
‘We haven’t run out of PPE but it has been a huge undertaking to source it with the demand we have and the ever changing guidance.
‘This is an enormous help, it takes a worry away and saves us a lot of money – it is an extra cost at a difficult time when everyone is struggling. ‘All nine hospices, not just this one, will benefit from this.
The Salvation Army Care Home in Edinburgh was one of the first charities to make use of Mail Force PPE
‘But it is not just for the hospices, it is really important that we are able to support patients in their own homes and this enables us to carry on doing that really important work.’
The Mail Force charity was set up by this newspaper and our partners to deliver PPE to those fighting the war against the virus.
Donations to the charity have so far reached £10.9million. Having delivered more than 7.5million items of essential equipment to the NHS and care homes, the focus is now expanding to include the charity sector. Among the first charities to make use of Mail Force PPE were staff at Mencap, one of Britain’s largest providers of social care, and the Salvation Army.
HERE’S HOW TO DONATE
Mail Force Charity has been launched with one aim to help support NHS staff, volunteers and care workers fight back against Covid-19 in the UK.
Mail Force is a separate charity established and supported by the Daily Mail and General Trust.
The money raised will fund essential equipment required by the NHS and care workers.
This equipment is vital in protecting the heroic staff whilst they perform their fantastic work in helping the UK overcome this pandemic.
If we raise more money than is needed for vital Covid-19 equipment, we will apply all funds to support the work of the NHS in other ways.
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As with the entire charitable sector, these organisations have suffered a major loss of cash since the start of the pandemic.
They desperately need PPE in large quantities if they are to keep both their staff and beneficiaries free from infection.
But at the very moment they need this kit most, budgets are being cut back.
The Mail Force donations not only slash the chances of infection but also free up resources for use elsewhere. Marie Curie relies on donations, and needs to raise a massive £2.5million a week to keep running.
But it was forced to cancel its Great Daffodil Appeal in March and has lost out on cash from events such as the London Marathon, while its shops were forced to close.
An emergency appeal has been launched so it can continue to support dying people, but it still faces a difficult few months.
Matthew Reed, Marie Curie chief executive, paid tribute to the generosity of Daily Mail readers and his staff.
He said: ‘It has been a highly stressful time for most of our front line colleagues but I think across the organisation, colleagues are extraordinarily proud of what a great job we have done. There is a real sense of pride in the organisation that, just when the nation needed us most, Marie Curie nurses and doctors stepped up.
‘It is very challenging as we don’t have the option of reining back on our services.
‘For us, the demand hasn’t gone away, the demand has gone up. So we are doing everything we can now to make sure we can fund care into the future as well.’
Mr Reed continued: ‘We need large volumes of PPE every day, we have over 2,500 clinical staff who every single day are either supporting patients who are dying in hospices or in their own homes.
‘People have already been extremely generous but it has left a funding gap and we are facing 2021 with a very difficult financial picture – as are many other charities.
‘Thanks to the generosity of the public and Daily Mail readers, things are a lot more stable now and we are very confident we can serve the public and keep our staff safe.’