Youth football club’s INCREDIBLE collection for health care staff

Bertie Peacock Youths Football Club decided that they wanted to help when they saw a Facebook post from a woman called Megan who was extremely concerned about her mother - a nurse in Coleraine’s Causeway Hospital - due to the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Club chairman Jamie Selfridge took up the story: “I contacted my Co-Chairman Aaron Moffatt and Club Treasurer Sean Devine to see if, as a club, we could help by releasing some club funds to buy PPE. Unknown to me at the time, Megan actually turned out to be Sean’s niece and the nurse referred to was his sister!

“We agreed to use £500 to buy gloves which we purchased from my old employer PartsPlus in Lisburn. We bought 115 boxes in total and donated 80% of them to the hospital.”

The club then put out an offer on social media for the remaining boxes.

“We were overwhelmed by the response from local care workers, care homes, community nurses etc. In just over three hours the gloves were all donated.

“Unfortunately with the gloves all gone, there were still requests coming in from care homes etc and it was apparent very quickly that they were in desperate need just like the hospitals. So our committee got their heads together and decided to run another campaign.

“This time we started a Justgiving page with a £1000 target to include a further £250 donation from our club. Within 24 hours, the amount raised was £1,300 and to this day its still rising to just over £1,400. So with this money and our added £250, we set about sourcing not just gloves but other PPE like masks, hand sanitizers, disposable aprons.

“This was extremely difficult. We had promises fall through but with the sheer determination of our committee, we continued to ring phones and bang on doors. Thankfully within a day or two, we purchaed a further 200 boxes of gloves, 1500 masks, 400 aprons and 45 sanitizers. This was extraordinary considering the task ahead and I applaud our committee members for coming to the table with the goods.

“At the same time there was a post from the Causeway Hospital looking water for their nurses so we also purchased 720 bottles for them.

“Because our first campaign was aimed at donating to the hospital mainly, this time we targeted more local care workers and care homes and the community to come forward. The response was phenomenal - though quite sad that these people where so short of what they need. Over the next 48 hours we distributed everything from my garage to 19 worthy causes including care homes, community nurses, GP surgeries, junior doctors, community health workers private and NHS. “It was amazing to help all these people. On top of those and not to forget our hospital, we supplied a further 100 boxes of gloves, masks, sanitizer, aprons and of course the water.

“Currently everything has now been donated and as we know PPE has become even more scarce. With money still in the pot, we are continually trying to purchase more. We are also now getting donations from companies and suppliers to help rebuild up another stock. Any money which we can’t spend on PPE we will be donating out to charities in need.

“From myself and on behalf of our club, we would like to say a massive thank you firstly to all the people who supplied us the PPE and prices which helped us spread the cost, over nine suppliers in total.

“Secondly to all those people who gave to our Justgiving page and helping us raise the money. To our committee and club members for doing their bit in getting this to work and finally a huge thanks to everyone who we helped because really, it’s them who are the true heroes in all of this,” Jamie concluded.