#MasksForEdinburghNHS

The picture is of my sister-in-law last week testing people for Coronavirus in Edinburgh. Her and my brother are NHS doctors who have spent their lives helping vulnerable people working in hospitals in poverty-stricken areas in Bizana, South Africa, and even volunteering themselves during the Ebola crisis at great personal risk (they were turned down for being too young).

My brother works for Sick Kids Hospital in Edinburgh and his wife for the Regional Infections Diseases Unit in Edinburgh, who are working on the frontline of the Coronavirus (COVID - 19) outbreak. They are wonderful people and parents to my nephew, a wee toddler who needs his mum and dad despite their long shifts.

I was frustrated and heart-broken to hear this morning that they only have a limited supply of respirator masks which are the only protection they have between them and this virus. Many of them are going out on the front-lines and I feel like we have to help with this. Please use this opportunity to make a tremendous practical difference in the lives of these people on the front-lines when they need it most. Help me get my brother, his wife and all of their colleagues some extra face masks!

100% of funds raised will go towards:

1. Buying the NHS approved respirator masks wherever we can get a hold of them and donating them to Sick Kids Hospital Edinburgh and the Regional Infectious Diseases Unit (RIDU). I have bought 10 so far with my own funds which will be delivered to Sick Kids Hospital and RIDU when they arrive. There are still masks available but this will be very difficult as most suppliers are completely sold out and will likely involve any and all means including eBay bidding and trying to source them from industrial suppliers.

We will not approach any NHS suppliers, we're only trying to source privately-held masks and get them back into the healthcare system.

2. When we can't get masks all remaining funds will be transferred directly to the Charge Nurse at The Regional Infectious Diseases Unit to help her staff during this crisis: sanitisation supplies, having meals delivered to hospital etc.

To raise funds for this I will be running 100km (5k every day) over the next month. I'll provide video updates on these throughout.

We don't have much time as it takes 6-10 days to get the funds once the campaign is done so I will update every 3 days on progress and consider finishing the campaign after week 1 and launching a 2nd in order to start buying masks sooner.We may reach a point where we just cannot source any more face masks due to shortage and in this case I'll update on how the funds are being used to the help the RIDU staff.

Thank you!