More than 120 volunteers from one village have been busy sewing scrubs, surgical hats and gowns for frontline NHS workers at Medway hospital.

Tracey Foyster from Hartlip mustered up the small army of helpers, who have made more than 750 sets of essential kit.

The 53-year old said she was inspired to start the project by her sister who is an ITU nurse at St George's hospital in London.

She said: "Just before lockdown I was sitting in my sewing room thinking of my sister and I really wanted to find some way to help.

"At the time there was a need for scrubs so I ordered 100 metres of fabric and got started.

"Then I set up a group and managed to gather more people and it grew from there.

"I used to be a dance mum so I'm used to sewing lots of costumes for my children who took part in ice skating competitions."

A Go Fund Me page raised £5,000 in donations towards the cost of buying 3km in fabric.

She added: "When I did some of the deliveries, my car was full from the boot all the way to the front seat completely covered in scrubs.

"It's been a real community effort, I couldn't have done it without every single person who helped.

"One of the ladies is the mother of a paramedic and she took the time to stitch little butterflies onto the pockets each of the sets she made as a little personal touch."

The work of the Village Scrub Group was so popular at the hospital, they even had a special request come in.

Mrs Foyster said: "There are a lot of nurses who are petite at Medway hospital so we had a request for smaller subs that would fit their frames because no other groups were making them that tiny.

"And sometimes we would order fabric with patterns and characters on them to make it fun for the children and nurses on the paediatric wards."

The dedicated sewers have stopped for the time being while the need for scrubs has subsided, but are ready to start up again whenever they are wanted.

She said: "Things at the hospital have calmed down at the moment so we've stopped making scrubs because they're not as needed.

"As long as Medway has everything it need we will stand down."

The money left over from the fundraising will go towards the hospital's staff recovery fund.

Local artist Wendy Handsford who was part of the community effort, made a collage of all the hands of those who volunteered.

Tracey added: "People as young as 15 and as old as 80 who helped with the project were asked to send in a picture of their hands.

"Wendy then created the beautiful artwork which really shows how hard people have worked."

The collage is now hangs proudly on display at Medway Maritime Hospital.

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