Jacqui makes all the difference with #TabletswithLove

30th October 2021

Jacqui Barrett had the bright idea to help the NHS and wider community with donating free digital devices. In partnership with a range of businesses such as Very, Tesco Mobile, Lenovo and Alcatel, Jacqui contacted Helpforce who helped funnel the digital devices to those NHS trusts in need. Via The Helpforce Assist work, over 300 devices were donated to 20+ NHS trusts and community groups. T

The devices were used for many things, including:

Helping patients in ICU and other wards stay in touch with loved ones, when visiting hours were restricted.
Aiding volunteers with patients to help with video calling friends and family. And, even taking their role virtual in video calling patients when visiting hours were cancelled.
Helping clinicians when patients couldn’t attend appointments, they’d proceed with them virtually via video call.
Frontline staff working long, arduous hours could use the devices to catch up with friends and loved ones.
For children’s wards and digital entertainment, when toys and other items were put into storage for fear or risk of COVID transmission. Jacqui volunteered her time and went to considerable lengths to ensure a patient, volunteer or frontline worker had some kind of comfort, company or functioning tool to do their work effectively and virtually.

Considering the last 16 months, video calls have become a lifeline for most who were isolating, living alone or just needed someone to converse with. As the health sector was stretched during the pandemic, we never got to see every benefit of the devices. But, if you look up #TabletsWithLove on Instagram or Twitter, you will see photos and even a video testimonial from a patient explaining that the Lenovo device “perked him up” whilst he was recovering from C-19 and enabled him to talk to his wife. Jacqui is nothing short of a saint for linking the businesses, who’d otherwise have second hand devices or stock sat there with no sense of purpose.