A TOP Belfast financial technology firm is going the extra mile to help hard-pressed frontline health workers battling the Covid-19 crisis with practical supplies and an online appeal.

And in just 24 hours, a JustGiving page set up by the company to fund support supplies for NHS staff has raised over £20,000.

Management and staff at Options this week launched their ‘Robin Hood’ project in response to the global pandemic.

With the Mater Hospital the designated site for Covid-19 in Belfast, Options launched a range of practical initiatives to help NHS staff. These included:

A free FonaCab account for hospital staff to get to and from work.

 60 day shift and night shift lunches to be delivered to the Mater on a daily basis for the next two weeks.

A partnership with O’Neills to provide trainers for A&E staff.

The company also ordered much-needed toiletries, sanitary wear and gloves for Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry.

Options CEO Danny Moore explained: “As a group, we have partners, family members and friends putting themselves at risk in hospitals right across the world. We got in front of the crisis ourselves, migrated our entire global client base to working from home ahead of government restrictions and ran the platform without a notable glitch.

“That said, when talking with the team there was a sense of emptiness. Simply put, many of us felt the need to step up and do something to help those on the frontlines of this crisis.

“We know that any contribution we make will pale in significance to that of just one respiratory team but we feel the time is right to see what we can do to help our friends and family on the frontlines"

Danny says staff did research and contacted health staff before coming up with practical measures which could make a small but important contribution. 

“Obviously, scrubs, PPE and respirators were at the top of every list, but we quickly found that there were lots of other stuff too including handcream, toiletries, plastic chairs and laptops to allow quarantined staff to work from home.”

Donations can be made to the JustGiving Robin Hood appeal online even though it has now passed its £20,000 target.