Personal Protective Equipment for Frontline Staff

Aim: We're raising funds to make and donate more face shields for frontline staff across North East Wales and North Shropshire

About us

We are Lesley and Andrea. We live in the same street on the North Wales/Shropshire borders and have been friends for years.  We’ve worked together, played together and so decided to start a business together.  What could possibly go wrong?!

The plan was to make beautiful gifts and homeware using a laser cutter/engraver, purchased with our savings and delivered in mid-March.

And then 23rd March happened. Lockdown.

Why we’re crowdfunding

Sitting at home watching the news, seeing the rising case numbers and death toll and the reports of the shortage of PPE for those on the frontline, like so many others, we wanted to “do our bit”. But how?

Our “how” came in the form of a tag to a Facebook post about a man on the Isle of Wight making Laser Cut Face Shields for the NHS….

We did some research, found a design created by Kitronik, Nottingham Hack Space and Smoke & Mirrors (which you can see here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqByh6uS-xc ) and, thought “We can do that”. After contacting some local organisations that had put out pleas for PPE, we discovered how desperately these things are needed.

We ordered enough supplies for 600 face shields to donate to local organisations and within 24 hours started production.  

 Components cut and ready to be assembled:

One fully assembled face shield:

But 600 just isn’t enough. After posting a single picture on our Facebook page, we were inundated with enquiries asking for supplies and, as much as we’d love to, as a brand new business that hasn’t sold a single product yet, we just can’t afford to make an infinite number of these ourselves.

So, we’re crowd funding for supplies.

We understand that these are worrying times (both for our health and finances), but please, give what you can to help us buy more materials and make as many face shields as we can! Even the smallest donation will be so gratefully appreciated, by us and those we are helping!

Lesley & Andrea

(The Laughing Bumblebee Company)

And then what?

We don’t know how long this need will go on, but we’ll continue to make as many face shields as we can, for as long as they’re needed. Every face shield we make will be donated to a local organisation and, when this is all over if there’s money left in the pot, we’ll split it between Nightingale House and Hope House.

Links you might find interesting

The Laughing Bumblebee Company         facebook.com/laughingbumblebee

Kitronik                                                                kitronik.co.uk

Smoke & Mirrors                                              smokeandmirrors.store

Nottingham Hackspace                                  nottinghack.org.uk

Nightingale House                                           nightingalehouse.co.uk

Hope House                                                        hopehouse.org.uk