Louth: Supporting frontline heroes by creating face shields

Beautiful Home Gifts responded to concerns about the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the NHS by re-purposing machines normally used to make prototypes for gifts.

Kevin Carthy, who runs the Louth-based firm with his partner Lucy Liles, said: “What we are hearing from more and more medical staff is that they are not being provided with the essential PPE necessary to do their job safely to fight COVID-19.

“Although we have no official word from the NHS, it seems this is the case all over the UK.

“We are getting contacted by more and more people every day. We have re-purposed our machines to produce face shields for healthcare workers in Lincolnshire and 
all over the UK. At the minute we are funding the project with money from our business and personal savings.

“Unfortunately, we do not have an infinite supply of money, which is why we need help from the public.

“We have started providing masks to care homes and any nurses, doctors, paramedics and any other health workers that have requested them.

“We have also been in contact with Lincolnshire St Barnabas Hospice to start providing them with as many face masks as we can produce.

“We have notified the NHS COVID-19 UK Team and offered our services to supply them.”

The face shield was designed by Czech 3D Printer Company Prusa and has been welcomed as a stop gap until the official NHS PPE arrive.

Leah Towse, Team Leader at the Wold Care Home, said: “We would like to thank Kevin and Lucy for providing these face shields, which are in short supply at the moment

“I don’t think people understand how desperate the situation is in the UK for PPE.

“Sadly it looks like things are only going to get worse and we need every piece of PPE we can get our hands on.”

District nurse Michelle Daff, who is on the team testing people for coronavirus, said: “It’s great that small businesses are supporting 
their communities and right now PPE is essential for us to do our job to stop this virus.”

Retired Nurse Cath Sweeny, added: “I have been approached to go back to work but would feel much happier about doing so if I could be assured that PPE was being provided to nurses and medical staff.”

Beautiful Home Gifts has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to keep producing the face shields and ramp up production. They can currently produce around 100 face shields a week, but have the potential to print 10 times that if they can raise the funds.

• To make a donation, visit gf.me/u/xs6j3c.

Meanwhile, two 3D printing enthusiasts are also doing their bit to produce face shields for NHS and other key workers.

Colin Jensen (Louth) and Ben Peterson (Cleethorpes) are aiming to produce over 10,000 face shields, but they also need support from fellow enthusiasts - or those who may be keen to get involved in the world of 3D printing.

• Visit www.gofundme.com/f/10000-3d-printed-face-shields-for-the-nhs to find out how you could help, either by making an online donation or by helping out practically.

Colin and Ben would like to thank Nick Newton at Parcel Ship for providing 900 thin elastic bobbles (for the head band of the shield), and to Green Footprint Services for the provision of PVC sheets.