A SCOTTISH reusable nappy company has donated more than £20,000 to Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity from the sale of face masks during the pandemic.
The owners of TotsBots, which supplies the Scottish Baby Box, were inspired to turn its hand to mask manufacturing when the pandemic hit to support the high-demand for face coverings.
Having had first-hand experience of the children’s hospital in Glasgow, TotsBots founders, Magnus and Fiona Smyth from Thornhill in Dumfriesshire, planned to donate a percentage of profits from the sale of their children’s face masks to the charity.
Fiona said: “Our son Darach, who is now 14, was born with Pulmonary Atresia and VSD, a fairly rare congenital heart defect that was diagnosed at birth.
“We first met the team when he was admitted at 12 hours old as he had to have life-saving surgery only a few days later.
“It was absolutely harrowing; understanding and coming to terms with the diagnosis, watching your very sick baby go through heart surgery and having to trust a group of strangers to help your baby survive.
“The paediatric cardiac team at Glasgow Children’s Hospital feel a bit like an extended family as Darach (above) has spent so much time up there. He has had several open-heart surgeries and in the Summer of 2019 he developed Endocarditis, a life threatening infection in his heart that meant a prolonged stay in hospital and yet another open-heart surgery.
"When we walk on the ward and are met with the well-known faces that have cared for Darach since he was born and have supported us through some of our darkest moments, we oddly feel at home. It is such a cliché, but we always say this after a surgery; we don’t know how they do it, day in and day out.
“The medical teams are such an amazing bunch of people and we are so grateful to them for saving our boy’s life and on more than one occasion.
“You just feel so indebted to everyone, so it’s nice to be in the position to do something to give back, especially to the charity where we have experienced first-hand the work that it does.
Kirsten Watson, chief executive of the Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity, said: “We can never say thank you enough to local businesses like TotsBots who, during a time of such great uncertainty and unprecedented challenges, have gone above and beyond to support the charity.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here