A Glasgow online travel retailer whose sales have dropped 95 per cent in the past two weeks has donated 5,000 pairs of compression socks to help Scots nurses combat Covid-19.
Worth £125,000, the colourful knee-length socks will help 5,000 acute nurses in six hospitals across Scotland fight fatigue in the coming weeks.
And the firm has pledged to give away 5,000 more in the next seven days to nurses in London, bringing the total to 10,000 (£250,000).
Trtl (pronounced ‘turtle’) has donated the compression socks to acute nurses at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Royal Alexandra Hospital (Paisley) and Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Govan. Each hospital has received 1,000.
In addition, nurses at The Royal Edinburgh Hospital will take 1,000 while Trtl has given 500 to nurses at Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital and 500 to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
The award-winning company, which employs 30 people in Glasgow, had stockpiled thousands of the socks in advance of its peak summer season.
But with sales stalling due to the Covid-19 pandemic and little prospect of travel bans being rescinded any time soon, CEO Michael Corrigan decided to use them to support frontline nurses in his home city, across Scotland and in worst-hit London instead.
He explained: “Although the compression socks have been most popular with airline travellers, at the start of this year we ran a small campaign with nurses around the world and they were really happy with them.
“Over the past few days, I’ve been thinking about how we can contribute in what is the biggest crisis many of us will face in our lifetimes.
“When something like this happens it very rapidly puts things into perspective.
“Nurses across the UK will be tested as never before in the coming weeks and if we can do something to help make the time they spend on their feet more comfortable, we must.
“I couldn’t just see these socks sitting in a warehouse when they could be helping people saving lives. That’s what’s important, and nurses need all the help they can get just now.”