Your volunteering stories: Karen Biggar

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Karen Biggar, PA to Professors Peter Kind and Giles Hardingham and Centre Administrator for Simons Initiative for the Developing Brain, The Patrick Wild Centre and UK Dementia Research Institute at the University, explains how she’s been helping out in her local community.

Please can you explain a bit more about your volunteering work?

I’ve been sewing tops and bottoms to form scrubs sets for the NHS.

How did you get involved?

I read an article about a group of volunteers in East London who had got together to respond to a local doctor’s plea to source of scrubs for staff. A temporary shortage had arisen because of the numbers of people returning to the profession; the numbers of existing staff who wouldn’t usually wear scrubs who now want to for protection; and the numbers of medical staff who didn’t want to take their scrubs home to launder.

This was the first ScrubHub and the community effort has now grown to 126 hubs throughout the UK, six being

in Scotland. I joined the Edinburgh ScrubHub.

What have you learnt from the experience?

The power of the community effort is tremendous. At all levels.

At the very beginning, a pattern designer donated their time and effort in designing the pattern that all sewers follow, fabric manufacturers offered fabric at cost price and the original hub members developed a model that could be rolled out to others. In the Edinburgh ScrubHub, one amazing volunteer co-ordinates the requests for scrubs from the profession, the sewers, and the drivers and delivers the finished scrubs. Volunteer drivers deliver fabric to the sewers and collect finished scrubs for return to the co-ordinator.  All this is organised through communication in a WhatsApp group. To date, we’ve delivered 78 sets of scrubs to 23 different locations.

Personally, I’ve really enjoyed being a part of such a fantastic team effort. I’ve found the sewing relaxing and a mindful way to fill my time in the evenings.  It’s also re-ignited my passion for dress-making – I’d kind of lost my sewing mo-jo in recent years.

How can others get involved and help this initiative?

You can volunteer by contacting edinburgh.scrubhub@gmail.com

I’m not sure how much longer volunteer sewers will be required as the traditional scrub suppliers are back able to meet demand.

Have you been volunteering in your local area? We’d love to hear about it. Drop us an email at bulletin@ed.ac.uk