Hollie & Chris – Entrepreneurs But At ‘No Charge’ To The NHS …

Pheasey, Advertising, Magazine
Hollie Bonfield & Chris Beddard

A young Pheasey couple have used phenomenal initiative to ‘3D’ create hundreds of face visors for the local NHS and front line workers – completely free of charge.

Hollie Bonfield and Chris Beddard –both aged 24 – so wanted to help around the Covid-19 crisis, they sourced the design for the visors on ‘Thingiverse’ then liaised with the original designer for authorisation to ‘run with it.’

Says Hollie, who works in the finance sector: “We are printing the face visors completely free of charge – funding it ourselves. My partner Chris created the ‘pathways’ to allow it to print via his printer – set up in a spare bedroom. He loves his printer – so much so he jokes that my birthday and Christmas presents will be 3D printed!”

Chris is ‘self taught’ in using the 3D printer, and works in the day as an engineer. He adds: “We are delivering chiefly to Midland hospitals, including Russells Hall, New Cross neonatal, WMP custody nurses, John Taylor Hospice and Heartlands hospital to name a few,  with more orders locally and from around the country still to be processed. Every day, throughout the day, we are continuously printing. Each visor takes half an hour each to print, and in the evenings we set to attaching the visors to the plastic printed head bands. Then we label up to send out. The visor itself is made from binding plastic as used in documents.”

Chris and Hollie say they are ‘going as fast as they can’ and are receiving praise for their work in helping to keep NHS workers as safe as possible. The WMP custody suite they are supplying is in Perry Barr, and they have taken orders for the A and E department at Walsall Manor hospital. Oaks Medical Centre on Shady Lane is using their visors in their ‘amber zone’ to allow face-to-face meetings with patients, which they say is ‘vital to them’.

The couple would like to thank ‘everyone for their support, especially Hollie’s Mum Julie and step-Dad Chris for footing the electricity bill! And add: “It’s really nothing special what we are doing, we’re just trying to help. We are the ones who should be grateful to the front line workers and are hoping this makes a difference.”