Huge response to clothing appeal to help homeless

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS trust, which runs Pinderfields, Pontefract and Dewsbury hospitals, appealed for “dignity clothes” to help homeless and needy people.

The trust has been overwhelmed with donations of clothes to give patients when they are discharged.

Lead dementia nurse Anita Ruckledge said: “It is heart breaking to see some of the patients that come to us, perhaps wearing a T-shirt when it is freezing.

“The kindness of the public means that when these patients leave us they are warm and feel a renewed sense of pride in themselves.”

Trust bosses said so many clothes were donated it was running out of places to store them. An appeal was put for a wardrobe, which was immediately paid for by kind donor Mary Wilson.

Trust chairman Jules Preston said: “This campaign isn’t just about finding new clothes to keep vulnerable people, including older folks living on their own, warm. It is also about restoring peoples’ self-confidence and to remind them that there is a community around them that cares.”

Donated clothes must be new and not second hand and can be taken to the Volunteers’ Office, Gate 35, Level D at Pinderfields Hospital.

Wardrobes and rails to hang clothes on are also welcome.