These personalised 'Thank You NHS' bags are selling like hot cakes in Sheffield

Rachel West put designs for two ‘Thank you NHS’ bags – a lunch bag, and a tote bag – on her Instagram page early last week.

Within days, she had received hundreds of orders from all across the country.

“People have been really taken with them,” said the mum-of-two, who launched Rachel West Embroidery & Design last May.

“I’ve been getting messages from people saying what a hard time their friends or family members are having in the NHS, and how they hope this will bring a smile, or brighten up someone’s day, and that means so much.

“I got the idea as I’d done something similar to say thank you to teachers when the schools closed earlier in the month. Then I was getting messages from people saying they’d love to thank other key workers, and asking if I had any gifts they could order.

“The woman who does all my designs created this beautiful design, personalised with a name, and I placed them on the bags, as I figure NHS workers need to carry a lot of things around at the minute. The design went on my Instagram last Monday.

“One woman sent me a photo of her daughter working in hospital in full protective gear, and said that her daughter had seen my page and sent a picture of the bag to her mum saying how much she loved it.

“I just want to get these out to people as quickly as I can.”

When the country went into lockdown earlier this month, Rachel’s embroidery business, like many others, ground to a halt.

But when her supplier, which had announced it was ceasing all deliveries, heard that many of her current orders were for NHS staff, they agreed to continue to ship her what she needed.

“It was so sweet of them, it’s been great to see how people are willing to go the extra mile for our NHS workers,” Rachel said.

“The company also supply hospital uniforms so they have a small number of shipments still going out, and tagged mine onto that.

“These bags are the only thing I’m still doing now.”

Rachel, who lives with her family in Gleadless, is now working flat-out from her dining room table to make sure the orders are filled as quickly as possible.

“I work for myself and it’s just me, but my husband is obviously home right now and able to look after our kids a lot, who are aged two and five, so I can work.

“My mornings start with PE with Joe with the kids, then we eat together, then they head off to learn and play with my husband, and I start work.”

It takes about 25 minutes to produce each bag, so Rachel really does have her work cut out for her, but she says she’s grateful the task is keeping her so busy.

“I’m from Kentucky in America, and my mum is a nurse over there,” said the 26-year-old.

“It’s definitely scary, and hard to be so separated from everyone, so this current task is great in that it doesn’t give me too much to sit and think about things.

“I really just hope, like everybody else, that everything will get better soon.”

Visit Rachel’s Instagram page to order one of her NHS bags.

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