Our nurses need some TLC.
Covid-19 came fast and furious and many nurses died. We saw their pictures. We knew their faces. We knew their names. We felt sad and many of us cried for lives lost, as nurses, doing their best to save lives in their daily line of duty, succumbed to Covid. Rightly, they were hailed as heroes of the pandemic.
But anonymous and unseen are the many thousands of nurses who became ill with Covid-19 and are now living with a debilitating illness. Long Covid is a destroyer of careers; a destroyer of health; a destroyer of the ability to live a normal life. Long Covid is complicated as it is not a single health issue but a compilation of many health problems, with symptoms varying from nurse to nurse, although fatigue, depression, and recurrent headaches are some of the most commonly experienced issues. But there are so many symptoms - possibly over 200 - many of which are very serious.
This campaign aims to raise funding to send a wellbeing box containing a selection of aromatherapy items to nurses suffering from long Covid.
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If you are an NHS nurse suffering from long Covid and would like to receive a free wellbeing box, please send an email to [email protected].
Please know that your details will never be shared. At the end of the campaign, all details will be permanently deleted.
Why I started this campaign
Hi, I'm Maggie Tisserand and I write books on the subject of aromatherapy (though not connected to the essential oil range of the same name). I have always had a soft spot for nurses as a few friends of mine loved their nursing careers. That is why, in the 1990s I enrolled fifty nurses from a Sussex hospital, each to receive a 45-minute massage, once a week for eight weeks. It was free of charge and highly praised.
These days, I don’t have the financial ability to help nurses in such a practical way, but when I heard about nurses suffering from long Covid I felt compelled to help – and that is when the idea of crowdfunding came to mind. So, here I am raising money to send nurses with long Covid a practical and thoughtful wellbeing box. Three of the four items in the wellbeing box are based around aromatherapy; the fourth is a £15.00 Amazon gift voucher.
Essential oils are powerful yet gentle in action. Lavender is well-known to help with sleep issues. Lavender is also cooling, so ideal for reducing a fever or calming inflammation. Clary sage is known for its uplifting aroma - with some users claiming it to be euphoric - after just a few minutes of adding a few drops to a diffuser and inhaling the fragrant vapours.
Each wellbeing box contains the following:-
Two 10 ml bottles of essential oil. Pure lavender. Clary sage. Each is versatile in use and can be inhaled - a few drops in hot water/diffuser, or made into a massage oil after adding to a fatty oil. Essential oils are already used in some NHS hospitals.
A diffuser is a convenient way to get essential oil vapours into a room, and originally, I wanted to include a diffuser in the wellbeing box. But adding a few drops of one essential oil to a mug or bowl of hot water is also good, so I changed my mind, and the wellbeing box now contains a £15.00 Amazon Gift Card that could be used to purchase a diffuser - or used for something more urgently needed.
A 40g bar of organic hand-made soap with the fragrance solely from one essential oil - from a range of organic soaps and toiletry products, handmade in Pembrokeshire, Wales by New Dawn Organic Skin & Hair Care.
The nurses' wellbeing box will contain a copy of Antiviral Aromatherapy - the 2023 revised edition will be published in November. This new edition includes an introduction to essential oils and how to use them safely and effectively, plus a section covering new & ongoing research that should be of interest to anyone suffering from long Covid.
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Let's-help-nurses-now is from my heart - but I couldn’t do it without a team of helpers – who like me, all care passionately about the plight of nurses with long Covid. Each individual is donating their time within their specific area of expertise and for that, I am deeply grateful.