‘A bit of comfort’

When colleagues in Dundee and Perth were discussing what more they could do for their local communities during these difficult times, they initially considered donating to a local foodbank.

As Dundee West Delivery Office has an enviable history of giving to a local foodbank, thanks largely to postman John Reilly, Blairgowrie delivery office manager, Nicola Sawers approached John for ideas.

‘I approached John about doing something with foodbanks,’ said Nicola. ‘However, he suggested something he had read online, whereby nurses had been asking for toiletries for patients as they’re currently unable to receive visitors.

‘We thought that this was a great idea and spoke to operations manager, Sarah Ward about rolling it out within our postcodes. I then made up some posters and they were distributed to the offices.’

Perth delivery office manager, Colin Darling, said: ‘We started by briefing our teams on what we were trying to do and one of the managers put a message out on Facebook, which was shared throughout the office and more than 100 times online.

‘Throughout the week, we were giving colleagues updates about how much we had collected each day and we had a display set up in the office. There was a real buzz in the team with everyone contributing. We were getting so many bags of items, such as, shower gel, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, denture tablets and razor blades from customers as well as the staff in ASDA and Tesco, who contributed as they seen the message on Facebook.

‘As far as numbers are concerned, we didn’t actually keep a count of all the items. But the total volume filled eight york containers. It was truly heart-warming to see such a positive response from our people coming together to help the community in such a time of need.’

Operations manager, Sarah Ward, said: ‘The teams in Dundee West and Perth did such a phenomenal job with the campaign. After the donations were delivered, we received the following note from staff at NHS Tayside:

‘The generosity of your colleagues is just amazing and will bring such comfort to patients across our sites. For some, especially elderly patients, it has been so hard not to have visitors and to have a little bit of comfort will make such a difference. We cannot thank you enough.’

Pictured: Delivery line manager, Derek McKenzie and postman, Stuart Boath from Dundee West Delivery Office.