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WIRRAL SUPPORT DURING CORONAVIRUS:
A BIRTHDAY ALFIE WON’T FORGET AND MORE…
Celebrating your 3rd birthday in lockdown isn’t much fun
especially when you are vulnerable due to health issues and can’t
have all your friends join you for a party, but little Alfie from
Wirral got a lovely surprise from the Wirral Support During
Coronavirus group.
The group was set up in March after Wirral man Andy Poynton
thought relatives, friends and neighbours might need a point of
contact if we went into lockdown.
He delivered hundreds of flyers through doors and started a
Facebook page in case people in the community, especially the over
70’s and vulnerable people, needed help with getting shopping or
picking up prescriptions.
Andy said: “We started to receive calls for assistance throughout
the community and further afield from as far as Australia from
people who had elderly relatives in our borough. Initially the calls
were mostly medication and shopping requests. I put out a request
to the Facebook group for people to go to the assistance of people
within their postcodes. The response was overwhelming!”
Within a week membership to the Wirral Support During
Coronavirus group hit 5,000 with people throughout the borough
undertaking amazing acts of generosity and a willingness to help
those most vulnerable.
Andy said: “We had a network of over 50 people per postcode
assisting those that needed it most. Two weeks later, volunteers
numbered more than 7,000 and people were actively working
within their own communities.”
Hearing about the group, Alfie’s great-grandmother Elaine,
contacted them to find out if there were any children entertainers
who could go to his house and maybe sing happy birthday to him.
Alfie has asthma and must wear a body cast for scoliosis, so he has
been kept in strict isolation for 8 weeks.
Elaine said: “He is crazy about Paw Patrol. Andy got in touch and
within a few hours he had arranged for Paul Fab to go and give Alfie
a performance by Paw Patrol characters along with a disco. It was
an amazing treat for Alfie and the whole of the road got involved (at
a safe distance). All the children had a great time. I think I speak for
thousands of people in our community that Andy and his team are
true heroes and we are all indebted to him.”
But Andy’s work hasn’t stopped there. He noticed that most of the
help offered was in a driving capacity so created another group
called Wirral Support During Coronavirus Drivers. This now has a
reliable fleet of 80 drivers delivering everything from PPE to white
goods to those who need it within the community.
Speaking of PPE, Andy asked via the Facebook group for schools
and individuals who owned 3D printers to go to work on production
of splash proof visors. At the same time, he realised that there
was potentially an abundance of unused PPE equipment sitting
within the catering establishments and car industry that they may
be able to obtain and deliver to those who need it. Soon WSDC
was delivering between 20 and 80 packages a day to community
and care home workers in Wirral thanks to donations from both
individuals and companies.
Andy said: “The feedback has been very positive and WSDC would
like to thank those guys who implemented fundamental change
that would normally take months in a matter of days. We’ve created
a well-functioning, amazing group of admin responsible for the
different services we provide.
“There are so many people to thank but I couldn’t have done it
without Mandy Cutbill for donations and the delivery of white
goods to the most vulnerable in our community. Cheryl German
and Steph Parsons are admin for the massive task of welfare and
food distribution to the most vulnerable. Jo Mitchell does a great
job in providing both art and craft to children that are distributed
to the care homes of the borough. Catherine Naylor works
endlessly on the charitable donations and distribution of funds
that just make tough times better. Hayley Hubberstey provides an
invaluable role in monitoring the site. I am so, so proud of all 9341
members of this group. We are making a difference.”
If you would like to help Wirral Support During Coronavirus, go
to: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wirral2020/
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