Staff from a Gloucestershire university have finished printing and packaging more than 500 protective shields for health care workers in the county.

The University of Gloucestershire has teamed up with local efforts over the past seven weeks, led by Balcarras School in Cheltenham, which has seen approximately 3,500 protective shields produced.

And Punchline has now named the educational establishment as its latest Business and Community Champion - an initiative backed by GFirst LEP, the Growth Hub, Gloucestershire County Council and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

Tom Hill, technician in Engineering and Product Design at the University, has been supervising the 3D printing from specialist facilities at Park Campus, and delivering a daily batch to Balcarras School on his bike, where Design and Technology staff have been assembling the visors.

Visors produced by the University have then been sent to both Cheltenham General and Gloucestershire Royal Hospitals as well as local care homes and other key workers.

Requests for the face shields have now stopped but staff say: "It has been an important experience and brought staff across the university together".

Printing of the visors adds to other efforts by both staff and students at the University of Gloucestershire to aid those fighting the coronavirus outbreak. Other projects have included working with fashion designer Emma Willis to produce scrubs, donations of specialist lab equipment for COVID-19 testing and providing free campus accommodation for frontline workers.

Send us your inspiring stories - you don't have to write them, just tell us about them and we will do the rest. Email beth@moosemarketingandpr.co.uk 

Punchline's Business and Community Champion Awards are sponsored by:

GFirst LEP

https://www.gfirstlep.com 

info@gfirstlep.com 

The Growth Hub Gloucestershire

https://www.thegrowthhub.biz 

talktous@thegrowthhub.biz 

Gloucestershire County Council

https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk 

customerservices@gloucestershire.gov.uk 

Gloucestershire OPCC

https://www.gloucestershire-pcc.gov.uk 

01452 754348