A MIDDLESBROUGH charity has responded to an NHS appeal to return crutches by making their own special donation.

The White Feather Project, which helps reduce food poverty in the area, handed over 40 brand new pairs of crutches to North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust.

Mark Horkan and Karen Beck from the group handed them to the team at the University Hospital of North Tees recently.

This is after the Trust made an appeal for patients to return crutches they had taken home and no longer needed.

Mr Horkan said: “We saw the appeal and wanted to do something to help. These crutches will help make a real difference to our local health trust.

“We are an organisation focussed on delivering emergency food care packages to people who are vulnerable, helping people with disabilities and collecting donations in our local areas to distribute to people in need."

Nicola Grieves, clinical lead for urgent care, said more than 50 pairs of crutches had been returned since the appeal launched at the start of July.

She said: “We are so grateful to the White Feather Project for their fantastic donation and to our community for responding so brilliantly to our appeal.

“Due to coronavirus, we have had a real decline in the number of crutches being returned, so this response had really helped increase our supplies.

“All pairs returned are professionally cleaned and issued to patients in need."