Chelsea and Westminster Hospital’s official charity is teaming up with nine artists to design #ScarfUp scarves for patients with respiratory problems this winter.
Charity CW+ has commissioned the artists to join their #ScarfUp project, which aims to prevent vulnerable patients from suffering COPD, asthma or Covid-19 related attacks.
The unique scarf patterns are donated by the artists, and then volunteer community knitters can download the designs from the website and knit the scarves for the hospital to distribute to patients.
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital’s medical director Gary Davies said: “As we head into winter, it is important that patients with asthma and COPD, as well as those recovering from COVID-19, are able to protect themselves from cold air and respiratory illnesses.
“Thanks to these artists and our volunteer knitters, we hope that this initiative will support our patients over the winter and reduce the number of exacerbations.”
Research indicates that mouth and nose coverings may be helpful in preventing attacks, as scarves warm up the air during inhalation.
The scarves are not intended to replace obligatory Covid-19 face coverings, but will be used in addition to face masks.
Trystan Hawkins, Director of Patient Environment at CW+ added: “With different designs from so many talented artists, we hope that there will be a scarf to suit everyone.
“Our main aim is to help patients with respiratory diseases, and to send them a message of love and wellness using these unique scarf designs.”
The nine artists currently involved in #ScarfUp are: A Space Between, Annie Morris, Bryony Phipps-Wardle, Caragh Thuring, Charlotte Cranidge, Denzil Forrester, Michael Landy, Supermundane, and Victoria Delphine Moore.
The project is inspired by Asthma UK’s #scarfie campaign, which encourages people with asthma to wear scarves around their faces to prevent asthma attacks.
The project builds on popular community knitting initiative ‘Hearts for our Hospitals’, which was set up by the hospital in April during the first Covid-19 wave.
The initiative encouraged local knitters to knit and donate hearts commemorating patients who had died from coronavirus and as a result around a thousand knitted hearts were donated to patient’s families who couldn’t be with their loved ones in hospital.
