A haberdasher forced to close her Hitchin shop due to the coronavirus lockdown has spent her time making scrubs for key workers, including GPs and carers.

Kim Keeping, who owns The Haberdashery on Bucklersbury, said: “I wanted to use my time constructively and have been able to use my wholesale suppliers to obtain fabric, thread, elastic and tape to make scrub kits.” Kim organised a group of volunteer seamstresses to make and donate the scrubs in Stevenage and North Herts, with particular demand from “community workers and care homes struggling to source them”.

GP Tara Belcher, clinical director of Hitchin and Whitwell Primary Care Network, said: “Myself and other local GPs set up several ‘hot clinics’ across the county to see patients with suspected COVID-19. We struggled to find enough personal protective equipment for clinicians, so when Kim offered to help I was delighted and relieved. I am enormously grateful.”