Elstree School delivers PPE to NHS

Facebook plea to deliver PPE to NHS hospitals answered by Elstree School teachers in battle against coronavirus

Last week Laura Harris from Ealing Council took to Facebook to ask for help from volunteers who could deliver personal protective equipment (PPE) in vans to the NHS staff in London hospitals who desperately need equipment such as aprons, gloves and face masks so they can safely fight on the front line and continue to fight the global pandemic – coronavirus.

An old university friend of Ms Harris’, Andrew Pilkington, Director of Teacher and Learning at Elstree School in Berkshire, saw the plea and was prompted to start putting plans into action. Mr Pilkington consulted with Elstree’s headmaster, Sid Inglis, and was able to offer Ms Harris the school minibuses with drivers to deliver PPE to NHS frontline staff in London.

‘It was a no-brainer; only an hour west of London, we had three free minibuses, and three willing drivers,’ Mr Pilkington explained. ‘Having heard about the PPE shortage, we knew how important it was to volunteer.’

The trio from Elstree – Andrew Pilkington, Foster Williams and Loderick Brown – drove through London’s empty streets to the depot in Ealing. They delivered around 37,000 aprons and 6,000 gloves/masks to each hospital or civic centre in Barnet, Hammersmith, Hillingdon, Harrow, Brent, Kensington, and Hounslow. The help the Elstree team gave was praised by Ms Harris at Ealing Council. ‘Genuinely awesome,’ she said, before adding, ‘thank you so much guys.’

Their motto for the day was: ‘If we ride together, we stop the NHS from dying together.’ The team made their last drop just after 6pm.

‘I remain ready to help my country and my countrymen, fighting this biological warfare,’ said Mr Brown. A very humbling experience for the three teachers, and one never to be forgotten.

Find Elstree School’s School House listing here

Read other reports of schools helping the NHS here