STAFF and students at Bradford School of Art have been making crucial hospital supplies for patients at a hospital in Gambia where babies are sent home in newspaper.

Those involved with the BA (Hons) Fashion degree programme have been producing hospital gowns, re-usable sanitary products and toiletry bags to be sent to the West African country.

The school is using bedding, cotton sheets and lengths of fabric to create the items.

The project came about after degree Programme Leader, Angela Loftus, discovered that the hospital in Gambia is continually struggling to provide even the most basic of items for patients.

Mrs Loftus said: "I was recently introduced to a lady who dedicates all her spare time to fundraising and aiming to provide a Gambian hospital that is massively under-sourced.

"On a daily basis patients are being operated on in the clothes they arrive at hospital in and new born babies are often being sent home wrapped in newspaper.

"With this in mind the staff and students on the BA (Hons) Fashion degree programme at Bradford School of Art are producing hospital gowns, re-usable sanitary products and toiletry bags."

The education setting is now calling on the public to help the cause.

More bedding, cotton sheets, or lengths of fabric are needed for the different items and the school is also asking people to donate their time.

The patterns for the items are ready, but the project now needs "a small army" to cut out and manufacture them.

Other items can also be donated, including: medical bandages dressings, plasters, Paracetamol, Ibuprofen, sheets, duvets, covers, pillowcases, toiletries, toothpaste and brushes, bras and knickers, sanitary products (preferably reusable), creams of any kind, schoolbags, children and baby clothes, bottles, milk, nappies, children's and adult's macs and wellies and small electrical items (kettles, irons).

For more information and to get involved, you should email: A.Loftus@bradfordcollege.ac.uk

Monetary donations can also be given too, at: aid2gambia.org