Local hairdressers and beauticians from across Fermanagh and Tyrone have raised over £12,000 to help buy personal protective equipment (PPE) for NHS staff in the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) and carers in the community.

Imelda Maguire, owner of Hair by Imelda Maguire in Kinawley is one of the hairdressers who has been involved. Imelda explained that Julie Maguire, owner of Eden Hair, Enniskillen created a group for hairdressers and beauticians to support each other through the crisis. Some of the group members decided to donate shampoos to the hospital as NHS staff have to wash their hair multiple times a day to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“We were getting messages from nurses who were thanking us for donating shampoos then we got more of an insight into how little they had in regard to PPE,” said Imelda, adding: “So then Jacqueline Swift, owner of Advanced Beauty, Enniskillen, she set up a GoFundMe page.”

Using the money raised from the GoFundMe page, Imelda noted that a number of hairdressers and beauticians have worked day and night looking all over the country trying to find PPE that they can buy. “We have been ordering online and Breege Boles, owner of Breege’s Salon in Lisnaskea, she drove to Newry and bought boxes of PPE from a supplier up there. Noeleen Devlin, owner of Hi-Tec in Omagh got us 100 boxes of gloves which we all paid for between us and then the supplier donated another 100 boxes on top of that. Since then a number of local businesses have donated PPE or money to the fund,” shared Imelda.

“I say there’s about 20 of us now that have started to get the PPE coming in and we are leaving it in Eden Hair, that’s our hub and we are just going in and collecting masks, gloves etc and then bringing them out to the hospital and our areas, say the community nurses need them because they have nothing at all in regard to PPE,” she added.

“We have PPE arriving everyday in the post; aprons, gloves, masks and shoe covers. So it started off with just a box of shampoo and now it’s accelerated to this and we’ve had so many businesses and people donating. The messages that we are getting from nurses, they are so thankful for what we have done,” Imelda told this newspaper.

 

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