At the age of 18, Dhiresh Nathwani has spent his lockdown making face shields for NHS hospitals, GP surgeries, care homes, and other places in need of PPE. What started with Dhiresh and a 3D printer in his bedroom, turned into Makers4TheNHS, a project of over sixty hobbyists printing about 500 shields per day, and shipping more than 300 each day across the UK.
They received 6,600 requests for face shields and produced over 5000.
At the height of their requests the social media support for their project was huge and Robotiq.org.uk spotted the work and donated 3D printers to the project to expand the production!
On 7th May 2020 the government announced that small operators of PPE production would require costly certification to continue production, something which the group could not consider. The production closed down but not without one final nod of support to local communities across the country. Dhiresh put out a notice on Twitter that he wanted the 3D printers to go to schools and in particular DT departments in schools that really needed the printers. Sharples got in touch with him and explained that our 3D printer had broken down just before lockdown. Mr Patel and Mr Myerscough had found a way to make visors for local NHS providers using our laser cutter. However we had no access to a 3D printer. Dhiresh offered one of the printers to Sharples School but it needed to be transported from Edgeware, London to Bolton!
Enter Megan Heyes! Former Sharples student and Deputy Head Girl! She saw our appeal on Twitter, travelled down to London to collect the printer and bring it back to Sharples!
Mr Patel, Mr Myerscough and Mr Armson are absolutely delighted with the new equipment for the DT Department and we look forward to using it with students in September! A huge thanks to everyone involved for making this happen!
