THOUSANDS of pounds have been raised and items donated to say thank you to staff at Winchester hospital as they continue to battle Covid, but fundraisers are not stopping there.

Melissa Murdoch, Georgina Olliffe Pearce and Nicole Doughton are now hoping to raise another £2,500 to show the community’s appreciation to not only doctors and nurses, but the extended team at the RHCH’s ICU.

Launched in March last year, during the first lockdown, the ICU Appeal has delivered hundreds of care boxes to those on the front line battling the virus day in, day out.

Melissa said: “My friend Anamika, who works at the hospital in the ICU, was sat on my doorstep explaining how hard it was and all the pressure they were under. It was just panic stations, and that is when we came up with the thank you boxes.

“We were isolated in our homes, but these poor young doctors were dealing with something that was unprecedented, they couldn’t really save lives they were just fire-fighting and the boxes were a way of just saying thank you from the community.”

From Melissa and Anamika discussing the idea and the first boxes being delivered was just 10 days.

She said: “So many people gave stuff and raised £2,500 of donations, and we ended up doing 185 boxes.”

And last month 115 boxes were delivered to the unit at the Romsey Road site.

“With this new lockdown, speaking to Anamika she said it is actually probably worse because of the fatigue and they are still trying to control this pandemic.”

Now people are being asked to donate so that boxes can be delivered to those who work in the operating theatres and operating department practitioners, who have been assisting daily with transfers, intubation, manual handling.

“We got some many thank yous from the staff and one of the things we kept getting is that there are a whole load of staff, other people that work within that team, but not for their team, [who hadn’t received boxes].

“We have decided to start the appeal again and try and do another 100 boxes. We are looking for another £2,500.”

To donate, go to gofundme.com/f/Thank-You-Boxes-for-Winchester-ICU-DonateShare