Take a bow
Supporters, friends, partners, funders, donors and volunteers who stepped up to help the NHS during the crisis
By joining Helpforce Assist, and donating to our cause, you helped brave staff on the front line in the NHS, and you helped to reduce isolation and fear for many patients.
You brought help and care to the staff who stayed away from home to protect their families from infection. Often they didn’t have enough changes of clothes; their faces were chapped from face masks worn for hours at a time; they were exhausted and in need of hydration and hot food. Staff told us of the trauma they were suffering from being at the heart of the pandemic, and witnessing such tragic death rates. They needed the support of trained counsellors.
You shone a light and gave hope to patients on isolation wards without family or friends; they had rushed to hospital quickly and had no change of clothes, or anyone to bring them a spare set. They were struggling with the fear brought on by a diagnosis of Covid19, and were in need of time with their loved ones. Children who were in hospitals were lonely, as very few people were allowed to visit them.
Thank you
for the hot food, nutrition, hydration, and kindness
Ocean Bottle, SOS Hydration, Dinner Ladies, Jonathon Thomas (caterer). Portmeirion, Marshall Wace, the volunteer chefs, and delivery drivers, who delivered free hot food to the NHS every day
The ingenious team at Marshall Wace behind Mealforce gathered volunteers to make and deliver 41,000 meals a day over two months, a total of 1.5m hot meals went to 40 Trusts, 81 hospitals. A generous donation of thousands of hydration sachets from SOS Hydration were welcomed by many staff who didn’t have time for normal refreshment breaks. We even had a big donation of crockery from Portmeirion who were keen to help in any way they could.
Staff have been so delighted with the meals, we are so grateful! ThankYou.
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust
Our favourite dishes are veg curry and definitely sweet & sour chicken, also anything with couscous – everyone loves the veg tagine.
I didn’t used to eat in the canteen and had a sandwich instead, now I’m eating hot food for free every day, it’s fantastic and makes such a difference – thank you so much!
The crockery has been used to set up a Covid19 front line staff only canteen and rest room at NNUH… We are so grateful for this kind donation… please pass on our thanks to all at Portmeirion.
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital
Not only do I want to thank you for the absolutely wonderful free meals but the thought, love and care that you pour into them day in and day out. It’s Ramadan (holy month for muslims) and the gesture for us has been incredibly sweet. You have been boosting our morals and levels of energy in this Pandemic and I would like to convey my heartfelt thanks to all of you. If I could- I would come thank everyone from the cooks to the delivery man…the store owners to shelf stocking staff for being so wonderful to all of us in the NHS.
Junior Doctor Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust
Thank you
for the comfort, clothes, care packages, free rooms to stay in, toys and books
Pan Macmillan, Boden, Ralph Lauren, Boohoo, Charles Tyrwhitt, Mambo, The People’s Poncho, Polarno O. Pyret, Wrap London, Poetry, The Sun, Piston, Spanx, Very, PZ Cussons (UK ltd), Triple Point, Noble Isle, QueenMe, TCC Global, Anthony Horricks, Gibson Games, 365 Games, WHSmith, Room2Reward
Many companies, big and small, turned to us to offer help, and thousands of care packages with changes of clothes were sent out to grateful staff and patients in need of a quick change of clothes. We worked with a campaign run by the Sun newspaper, and other organisations to deliver thousands of toiletries, hand cream, and lip balm in goody bags. Children’s wards were sent toys for free, and books were donated to staff in need of a distraction in their breaks. The generosity made a huge difference, and we are very proud to work with so many who want to help our health and care services.
On behalf of the board of West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust and Raise, our hospital charity, I would like to thank you for your generous donation of goody bags to support our staff during the Covid-19 pandemic. Your kind and generous support has made all the difference to our staff and patients and provided them with a much-needed lift, which has kept them going throughout this very difficult time. For our staff, knowing that our communities are behind them and supporting them has been a huge morale boost. Your donation has not just given them something practical; your thoughtfulness and kindness has also provided them with emotional support.
West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust
We were thrilled to receive a generous donation of clothes from Ralph Lauren through Helpforce for staff working long hours at short notice and for patients who are without adequate clothing, “The patient was so happy that she has some clothes to wear now instead of a gown. She said she feels an enormous benefit to her emotional well-being as well.
North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust
The clothes arrived and I was overwhelmed by the generosity, I can only imagine how the children will feel when they open their packages. The clothes will start to go out today to a domestic abuse refuge, an asylum seeking family and a family with 3 boys who each have complex additional needs who were recently evicted.
Newcastle community project
A heartfelt thank you to POLARN O. PYRET for their very generous donation, they will be going to some of the most vulnerable children in society.
So grateful to Boden Clothing for making the stay of our younger patients that little bit more comfortable! Well done to the volunteers for delivering them.
Thank you
for being there and reducing isolation and stress for so many
#TabletsWithLove campaign, ConnectForce, Lenovo, Lifesaver Power, Virgin, Tesco (mobile), Boohoo, Very, Alter Agency, Virgin (mobile), COF Solutions, the hundreds of psychotherapists volunteering with Frontline 19, and the pilots who provided support through Project Wingman
We were thrilled to partner with Jacqui Barrett, the brains behind the tablets with love campaign which galvanised companies to provide free telephones and tablets to patients so they could stay in touch with their loved ones. Reducing loneliness helped many feel better.
Through Frontline 19, a team of 2000 psychotherapists offered free counselling to over 400 people in need of help in NHS Trusts and Care homes. This is critical in helping people who have seen so much death give their mental health priority, and access to free psychotherapists is a much needed boost, helping them continue to face the ongoing challenges in the NHS.
Thank you all so much for organising the donation of these tablets for BSUH Trust, we are incredibly grateful. At a time when families most want to be together to give each other comfort and love, it is so hard to be apart, and these tablets will help to bring patients and their families that little bit closer together. Your generosity will also be so appreciated by our staff who always want to do everything they can to help and to look after their patients.
Brighton & Sussex
Our trust is developing a virtual visiting strategy so these tablets are going to be a great and valuable addition to the initiative.
North Tees NHS Trust
These tablets have been distributed across Leighton Hospital’s wards and have been used to enable our patients to video call loved ones, who due to the current pandemic and visiting restrictions, they are unable to see. We are so very grateful for the donation as without it, a number of our patients would not have been able to keep in touch with family members and friends; something which is so vital for their wellbeing.
Mark Lever, CEO of Helpforce, thanks everyone who has made a difference to the NHS
As the NHS faces one of the biggest challenges in its history, the Helpforce team thank the brave staff and volunteers who give so much to care for others. We also thank the generous donors, businesses, and individuals, who brought their energy and enthusiasm in ingenious ways to support the frontline workers, through our project Helpforce Assist.
Kindness In numbers
110k
gifts with a value of £1.7m
1,000
hours of professional support with a value of £90k
£1.8m
The total value of help in goods and services excluding meals
1.5m
hot meals delivered
78
Trusts supported with kindness
The East and North Hertfordshire Hospitals’ Charity would like to say thank you for your incredible donation for our amazing NHS Staff. Your support through our Here For Each Other campaign has enabled us to support our frontline staff.
The East and North Hertfordshire Hospitals’ Charity Team
We can’t thank you enough!
The incredible organisations who joined in and helped
- Alter Agency
- Anthony Horricks
- Boden
- Boohoo
- Charles Tyrwhitt
- COF Solutions
- Daily Mail
- Dinner Ladies
- Frontline 19
- Gibson Games
- Jonathon Thomas (caterer)
- Lenovo
- Lifesaver Power
- Marshall Wace
- Morgan Stanley
- Noble Isle
- Ocean Bottle
- Pan Macmillan
- Piston
- Polarno O. Pyret
- Portmeirion
- Project Wingman
- PZ Cussons (UK ltd)
- QueenMe
- Ralph Lauren
- Room2Reward
- SOS Hydration
- Spanx
- The Sun
- TCC Global
- Tesco (Mobile)
- The People’s Poncho
- Triple Point
- Very
- Virgin
- WHSmith
- Wrap London/Poetry
- #TabletsWithLove (Jacqui Barrett)
- 365 Games
Generous volunteers who supported the Helpforce team
- Accenture
- Amanda Powell-Smith, Forster Communications
- Ben Londesbrough
- British Airways
- Cosmo Barran
- Dac Beachcroft
- Deloitte
- Guy Longshaw
- Marks & Spencers
- PPL Consulting
- Price Waterhouse Cooper
- Social Business Trust and Permira
- Tamara Raey
- Tiffannie Darke
- Will Spicer
Fantastic funders who stepped up to make our work possible
- Advent International
- CHK Foundation
- Health Education England
- Jim Esposito Annual Giving
- John Storey Annual Giving
- Ludgrove School
- NHS England
- Robert King Jnr Annual Giving
- And the many generous individual donors who donated directly to us