When people leave us a review on TrustPilot or tag us in a social media post more often than not our Sharpies are mentioned. We knew when we first started including them in every order many years ago now that they were going to be popular. After all, in the professional kitchen, Sharpies are worth their weight in gold.
With chefs rightly saving as much as they can during these turbulent times, we have been left with a rather large amount of our Sharpies.
It is now common knowledge that our hospitals are struggling for equipment, everything from PPE to ventilators. However, a shortage that we certainly did not expect was that of Sharpies. A plea was put out on social media by the Intensive Care Society with a diverse range of needs which included:
- Tea
- Soft and energy drinks
- Vaseline and moisturisers
- Sharpies
Now the first two, absolutely vital and expected but the second two we weren’t sure why but when we opened the Sharpie conversation with us they kindly explained. The Vaseline and other moisturisers are for chafing and wider skin irritation caused by the PPE. As important as that is we like why they use the Sharpies more.
Firstly, they use these permanent markers to label healthcare staff’s individual PPE. For the non- single use equipment this is obviously essential. But this has a second effect than simply operational organisation. When wearing gowns, gloves, visors and face masks the staff are effectively unrecognisable to the patient and each other. Therefore, having their name written across their visor with a Sharpie means everyone knows who they are. This is naturally helpful to the staff to identify one another but also reassures the patient that there’s a real person behind all the equipment.
So we donated 500 of our Oliver Harvey Sharpie’s to 5 ICU’s across the country. Anything that helps our amazing health workers at this time and in particular those fighting in the toughest trench of the coronavirus conflict.