Employees at Marshall Advanced Composites in Kirkbymoorside have made and donated 10,000 face masks free of charge to local hospices, surgeries and care homes.
The company redeployed some of its teams to produce much-needed protective masks using its bespoke tooling equipment – a composite cloth-cutting machine – to ensure its local medical facilities have the essential equipment they need in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
General Manager, Carl Morse said:
“Our company values include ‘protecting people in critical situations’ and what better embodiment of those values than to produce this vital protective equipment for those who are doing so much to help the local community?”
Much of what the company does is deemed essential work by the Government, and so it continued to support its military customers and has teams working while observing strict social distancing. However, production has slowed down in some areas of the business.
“We’d delighted to support our workforce and the local community where we have the capacity. We can never thank our carers enough for the selfless contributions they make every day at this time and we’re happy to be able to help by providing these masks,”
The company specialises in composite structures for the military, including cockpit panels for the C-130 Hercules heavy airlifter aircraft, which are used by the RAF and other air forces globally. They are currently being deployed around the world in the fight against the pandemic, including medevac, transporting vital medical supplies and supporting remote communities. It also produces propulsor ducts and rudders for the Astute class submarine for the UK MOD.
Marshall Advanced Composites bought in special foam and plastic to make the masks, which teams then put together in a matter of minutes.
The 10,000 items have taken about three weeks to produce and are being donated to some two dozen care homes, hospices and medical practices in and around Pickering, Malton, York, Scarborough and Helmsley.
The local medical facilities include St Leonards Hospice in York, Holt Retirement Home in Scarborough, Ryedale Special Families in Malton and the Hall Residential Home in Pickering, among many others.