MEMBERS of a book club have launched a campaign to collect practical items to be donated to NHS staff in Dorset - and have already received almost 1,000 donations.

A group of nine book club members launched the Nurturing Hospital Staff campaign in January to show their appreciation for staff at Dorset County Hospital (DCH) and Yeovil Hospital in Somerset.

The group has been collecting donations of hand cream, lip balm, moisturisers, candles and eye masks to be distributed to all the staff in the two hospitals, including doctors, nurses, administrative staff, porters and cleaners.

More than 50 villages and towns have signed up to the campaign and have put collection boxes in shops, churches and garages so that all the donations are easily accessible.

So far, nearly 1,000 individual donations have been collected.

The campaign, which will continue until March, has been organised by Mary-Jane Attwood, a fundraiser for a conservation charity. She said: "I came up with the idea and the rest of the book club said they wanted to help me.

"I felt I had to do something at this particularly difficult time to show our support and appreciation to the NHS workers, whether they be cleaners or consultants."

The donations are collected on Fridays and stored for 72 hours to to make sure there is no risk of coronavirus transmission. They are then delivered to DCH every Monday.

A spokesman for DCH said: "The staff were absolutely delighted to receive these gifts and were really overwhelmed with our ongoing support and generosity.

"It certainly brought a lot of cheer and smiles and perked everyone up."

Mary-Jane added: "The response has been superb and we have had some very heartwarming messages from members of the public who are grateful that we have provided a way for them to do something to help the NHS staff.

"Our call to action would be if anyone wants to take this up in their village then please get in touch with us and we can make it happen."

If you would like to set up a collection box in your local shop, garden centre or garage, contact Mary-Jane Attwood on mjattwood@hotmail.co.uk