11:41AM, Thursday 23 April 2020
A Maidenhead school uniform shop has swapped jumpers and blazers for disposable gowns and face visors, distributing £100,000 of personal protective equipment (PPE) to those most in need during the COVID-19 crisis.
Seema Goyal, who runs Goyal’s in Bridge Street, has been using her contacts in the textiles world to acquire thousands of disposable gowns, visors and masks, and has been distributing them across the country.
Seema’s stock is being used by COVID-19 clinics, hospitals, doctors surgeries and paediatricians across Berkshire. The Royal Borough is using her stock, and some of it is even being distributed as far as Brighton and Greater Manchester.
The NHS registered supplier has spent £100,000 on acquiring the certified PPE from distributors across the UK, Pakistan, Cambodia and China. Seema is selling the majority of the stock at the same price she buys it for, but is also giving away many items to vulnerable individuals in the Royal Borough.
Seema, who earlier this week delivered visors to an elderly couple in Cox Green, said: “It’s sad to be seeing people in this situation, but the thing is even if you don’t want to, you end up doing it because you see these people in vulnerable situations, they need to be helped.
“It feels good when the orders have gone in, it feels good that people have got the stuff and they are putting it to use.”
Many members of the Goyal family are doctors and consultants, and with a family textiles business, Seema found herself in a position where she could use her expertise and contacts to help the fight against the coronavirus outbreak.
She has been working 15-hour days coordinating orders and deliveries. She has also started making disposable gowns in-house, and hopes to have made more than 800 by Sunday.
Once all of her orders have been fulfilled, Seema hopes to be able to give out any left-over stock for free to those most in need.
She said: “I have a vision that by next Wednesday (April 29), all the orders will be out and then we will be able to give away more items.”
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