A nurse who has returned to the frontline at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has helped to donate toiletries to patients and staff at this unprecedented time in an attempt to lift spirits and show appreciation.

Sharon Harrison, who has switched roles to go back to working in critical care, has encouraged her social media followers, as well as companies to donate toiletries to the trust’s charity Bright Northumbria.

It all started when Sharon gained an unexpected, large response when she shared a colleague’s post on Facebook about patients requiring toiletries. Since then she has given out homemade toiletry bags to patients at North Tyneside, Wansbeck, Hexham, Blyth and the Northumbria hospitals. While doing so, herself and the team offered a ‘lucky dip’ of toiletries to members of staff.

Sharon also received donations from two Premier Inns in the area, Newcastle Gosforth/Cramlington and Holystone, contributed hotel products, as well as their staff personally donating.

With the amount of interest surrounding this, Sharon went on to contact large manufacturers of toiletries, including Colgate-Palmolive, which supplied her with over 150 toothbrushes, toothpastes and shower gels. She also received contributions from staff at the company Recipharm, one of the five largest pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organisations in the world.

Sharon said: “I wanted to do something that would help our patients in hospital, who are currently separated from their loved ones. These donations are evidently lifting spirits, and reminds them that we are thinking of them through these difficult times.”

“What our staff are doing in Northumberland and North Tyneside and across the NHS is amazing and this is a small way to say thank you.”

Northumbria Healthcare’s charity, Bright, is helping to distribute the donations across the trust.

Brenda Longstaff, head of the trust’s Bright charity, said: “We’re incredibly grateful to Sharon and her multiple donors. Her enthusiasm to contribute and co-ordinate has made a huge impact on both our staff and patients, especially while we go through these challenging times, and we would like to thank her for her incredible work.”

If you wish to make a donation, please contact the trust’s charity team on brightcharity@northumbria.nhs.uk or visit www.justgiving.com/NHCCF.