A Shelly Park mum has begun making face shields for front-line medical staff on her 3D printer at home but is fast running out of materials.
While Willow van As isn’t producing commercial amounts, the dozen she has made so far have been eagerly snapped up by medical workers. It comes at a time when the Government is scrambling to get specialist equipment out to essential health and associated services workers during the Covid-19 lock-down.
“I’ve been 3D-printing face shields for local essential workers (a pharmacist, sonographer, GPs (general practioner), a dentist, vets and midwives) but the shield part is made from A4 overhead transparency sheets and I’m not having any luck finding them,” Willow told the Times.
“If the Times is able to assist, that’d be great as it is a fast and cheap temporary solution that is helping them out and I have at least five midwives wanting them.”
Willow says 3D-printing is just a home hobby. But she needs more overhead projector sheets to make more.
The stay-at-home mum of three girls is also known as the Bone Lady as she goes to schools and kindergartens to teach children about anatomy, zoology and conservation.
“I’ve made 12 face shields to date. I started off by offering to make some for some friends (a pharmacist, sonographer, midwife and GP) who were all concerned and appreciated the additional layer of protection it offers, and then I offered it to a few more people such as Somerville Vets, a dentist, and another nurse,” says Willow.
“The midwives seem to be anxious for help so I’m working on another five for them and will go from there.
“It’s just the overhead projector (OHP) sheets that are key and I only have around 10 of these left which were kindly given to me by someone else. While we can use laminated pockets, they’re not as clear as the OHP sheets.”
- If you have spare overhead projector sheets, contact Willow on email willowvanas@yahoo.co.uk.
