A member of staff at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been helping patients feel as comfortable as possible following chemotherapy treatment.
Jo-Anne Porter, a chemotherapy nurse, recently took to Facebook to appeal for knitted items to help patients with their pain relief through the use of heat packs.
Jo-Anne said: “A lot of our patients have long and arduous treatments and their arms can get very sore and tender due to the harshness of the chemotherapy.
“Heat packs help reduce the pain but they are generally placed in a pillow case and we know they often get inadvertently thrown away in the linen.
“I reached out to a knitting group on Facebook to ask if anyone could help by knitting some little pouches to put our heat packs in to avoid losing as many and the response I got was phenomenal. To date I have had nearly 300 responses with people all over the UK, including Northern Ireland and Scotland knitting away for us.
“I even had a message from a lady in Canada!
“I have completed my first two samples and have already used them with patients!
“I just wanted to share this story as it has been quite amazing, I know social media can be harmful sometimes but this has restored my faith in the power of Facebook and the kindness of people all over the Country – even the world.”