Birmingham based door manufacturer Warrior Doors has bid to raise £10,000 for COVID patients who are isolated and have little contact from people. The funds will be used to purchase radios, computer tablets and more to help those in need. So far, the firm has already provided patients with numerous radios and books.
Brett Barratt, Managing Director at Warrior Doors, decided to support patients at Queen Elizabeth's Hospital in Birmingham after his daughter Esther stressed her concern of the lack of interaction COVID patients were receiving.
Esther has worked on the respiratory ward at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for the past 8 years, and due to the virus, can only visit patients for a short amount of time. This goes for all doctors and nurses who were only allowed to visit to provide essential care.
Therefore patients who do not have contact with their families, are often left on their own without any interaction. This especially concerns older patients who have almost no contact with anyone and aren't able to use modern mobiles.
Talking about how the idea came about, Brett said:
“I received the following message from my daughter and was eager to help...”
“Dad, do you think people at your church or any other people you know would want to make little care packages for the patients on my ward?
At the moment it’s really lonely for them, there’s no TVs in the rooms so they have nothing to do, some of them don’t have family bringing things up for them.. so they are literally just in a room on their own with nothing at all to do.. I've been down to the shop on most of my shifts to buy either the paper or crossword books for people to do things.. I don’t know if you're able to get the word out a bit and if people want to donate anything that would be great.”
Brett added:
“It’s the little things that mean so much to people. The nurses would just like to make the patients more comfortable. It is totally selfless.”
For those wanting to donate goods, Warrior Doors are accepting donations at their facility to be delivered to the hospital.
In a thank you letter to the firm and to those who had donated the goods, a patient on the ward wrote:
“I deeply appreciate the donation of books. They have helped me mentally, spiritually. Thank you. It is much appreciated.”
You can also help by donating to the Queen Elizabeth Charity JustGiving page, where the funds will be used to buy items like those donated.
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/warrior-doors-qehbc-fundraiser
Individuals donate items by dropping them off to Warrior Doors with certain time slots, find out more by clicking here.