Residents scrub up well

Tower Hamlets residents have made over 300 medical scrubs for a local centre.

Published: 22/07/2020

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Peabody residents have been keeping busy during lockdown by stitching over 300 sets of scrubs for The Docklands Medical Centre.

The residents normally attend a sewing group in the Whitechapel Centre which is run by SocietyLinks, a charity that has been organising volunteer activities at the centre for over 9 years. The volunteers all live locally and, with the help of a Project Coordinator from SocietyLinks, have worked effortlessly throughout the pandemic to produce the scrubs for medical staff (above).

After the initial delivery, they continued to sew more sets to meet demand and now have a team of young volunteers who are helping with packaging and deliveries.

The project has allowed volunteers to stay motivated while supporting the local community and NHS staff.

Nazreen Khan, a nursing student from City University who has been volunteering on this project said: "This has really helped me to get to know the community better and I was able to explain to the young people how important scrubs are and how they are used in a hospital setting."

Volunteer, Anica Gulzar went on to say: "It was nice to have something to do, it stopped me getting bored but I also knew that I was doing something good for the community". While Atiya Begom, a regular volunteer with SocietyLinks, added: "We had an abundance of people come forward wanting to help. Everyone who has been involved in this project has said it has been a wonderful way to be able to help the NHS who we are all relying on more than ever."

Bulirun Nessa, who coordinated the project, said: "It was pleasure to work on this with all the wonderful volunteers. Their dedication and focus has been amazing and I can't thank them enough for all their efforts. Seeing all the hard work being put to good use makes it all worthwhile."

The Docklands Medical Centre has given raving reviews of the scrubs sets and now other medical facilities in the area have requested sets too, which the fantastic volunteers will be delivering soon.