A husband and wife are helping residents in the district with a range of essential hygiene products through their charity project.

The Hygiene Bank - West Northumberland was set up by Hayley and Andrew Hall and is the Tyne Valley branch of a nationwide charity that has the goal of ensuring everyone has access to essential hygiene products.

“We set the Hexham-based bank up after seeing they were looking for volunteers on the Do It website (https://do-it.org/organisations/the-hygiene-bank),” said Hayley.

“I wanted to volunteer in my local area and The Hygiene Bank’s focus on ‘give local, help local’ really appealed to me.

“I’m the project co-ordinator, my husband Andrew also volunteers, and we’ve recently been joined by a new volunteer, Kathryn Keith.

“We all share a belief that it’s it’s wrong to think being clean should be a luxury or a privilege.”

The hygiene bank idea was created by Lizzy Hall three years ago, after she was moved while watching a scene in the film ‘I Daniel Blake’ when a single mother is caught shoplifting for basic toiletries, with her going on to set up the bank idea as a result.

The lockdown and Coivd-19 restrictions have also proven a challenge to Hayley and the charity, although she explained that they’ve managed to adapt to the circumstances.

“We’ve had to find new ways of working and largely focused on fundraising,” she added.

“Luckily. we’ve managed to secure funding from Karbon Homes, Ideal Boilers and also a winning team at the Northumbrian Water Innovation Festival Data Hack, who’ve all been great.”

“We have donation boxes in Boots in Haltwhistle, Hexham and Prudhoe as well as The Beauty Spot in Hexham.”