A Co Down firm has donated £60,000 worth of personal protection equipment (PPE) to hospital staff.
Newry-based recycling company Re-Gen Waste Ltd made the donation to help key workers in the Southern Health and Social Care Trust.
Big-hearted bosses stepped in after learning from family and friends who work in the trust area that stocks of PPE were running low.
The company, which had already been sourcing equipment for its own staff in China, then assembled a team to bring home extra PPE for key medical workers.
An additional £60,000 order was placed, comprising of 24,000 pairs of medical hand gloves, 18,000 disposable surgical masks, 7,200 FFP2 respirator masks and 480 sterile medical protective suits.
A flight from Shanghai carrying the essential equipment landed at Heathrow Airport on Monday and the cargo is being taken by road to Re-Gen Waste’s Newry Headquarters tomorrow where it will be collected by the trust and distributed to hospitals.
Aidan Doherty, commercial director at Re-Gen Waste, said: “We were distressed to hear that healthcare workers in our own community were frightened to go to work because they were running out of much needed PPE supplies.
“It was important to us that we did our bit to support the health and wellbeing of these incredible individuals who are putting themselves in harm’s way, to provide the very best care for their patients.”
Mr Doherty said that while his firm was not able to “help directly on the frontline” its staff were was able to source the equipment needed.
“Anyone who is capable of helping right now, should be helping,” he said.
“We can have a direct impact on the number of lives protected and saved within our community.”
