A drive-through coronavirus testing facility is to open at Honiton Park and Ride in Exeter as part of the Government’s UK-wide drive to increase testing for thousands more NHS and other key workers.
The site sits alongside a rapidly expanding network of testing sites being set up around the UK, and is operating on an appointment-only basis for NHS staff and other key workers. The facility will be piloted for its first few days of operation.
This follows the launch of the Government’s partnership with universities, research institutes and companies to begin rollout of the...
Two independent opticians are extending their services to support vulnerable people in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pullen and Symes Opticians, with practices in Exeter and Ottery St Mary, are delivering spectacles to those in need, including older members of the community and high-risk patients, who are unable to collect in-store.
Nicki and David Pullen from the practice will travel free of charge to the door of patients who cannot visit the practice in the Exeter area, even delivering contact lenses and solution to those in self isolation.
An award-winning Exeter children’s author has become a virtual bedtime storyteller to help families cope with the coronavirus lockdown.
Dr Wendy O’Shea-Meddour has replaced her work in schools and libraries with story sessions filmed at her home for toddlers to nine-year-olds. Her books have already garnered recognition for helping adults support children through difficult experiences and have become even more relevant now.
The sessions, available online, will include readings from new books not yet published. Dr O’Shea-Meddour, who records with a camera balanced on a...
A LEADING Devon care provider says the home care sector’s image is changing in the wake of the Coronavirus crisis as more people realise how vital and skilled it is (April 2020).
Domiciliary care was perceived as being low-status, unskilled work before the outbreak, but Guardian Homecare, which has teams in Exeter and surrounding areas, says this has now altered.
Manager for the service provider, Catherine Porter explains: “We’re helping shield our elderly and vulnerable service users every day as requested by the Government and we’re also preventing any non-essential...
A social enterprise that supports vulnerable young people through music technology and music production sessions has been able to continue online during the Coronavirus outbreak thanks to a grant from the Exeter Covid-19 Community Action Fund.
Sound Gallery CIC have been awarded £1,000 from the Action Fund. The sessions, which would normally have been provided face-to-face from the Sound Gallery Studios at Exeter Phoenix, will now be delivered remotely via Skype or Facetime.
Maria Peters, of Sound Gallery CIC, said the grant was great news for organisation and some of...
Thirteen hundred people including vets, plumbers, soldiers, hairdressers, builders, students, artists and estate agents have answered the call to help care for the county’s most vulnerable residents.
It follows an urgent countywide appeal to recruit Healthcare Assistants – a vital new role supporting social care providers and the NHS during the coronavirus pandemic.
The registrations have come from people aged 16 to 65, some former health care professionals’ others, with little or no experience at all in health or care.
The Family Law Company has raised £1600 for cancer charity FORCE in memory of a colleague who succumbed to the disease.
The current lockdown meant that the presentation was carried out virtually through a Microsoft Teams meeting, when Director, Jane Chanot ‘met’ Naomi Cole, Community Fundraising Coordinator with FORCE to present the cheque.
Jane said: “The money was raised by the company as a tribute to my former secretary Helen Finch, a much loved and valued member of our team who passed away last year.
“Although it was sad not to be able to hand over the cheque in...
Tom O’Flaherty insists he and his Exeter Chiefs team-mates will be ‘raring to go’ as and when the season resumes for the Devon club.
Like all of us, the 25-year-old winger is having to abide the rules of the Government’s lockdown during the current COVID-19 outbreak.
However, when rugby does finally resume, the London-born speedster will be looking to drive the Chiefs onwards and upwards, especially after it was confirmed today that he has signed a new long-term deal with Rob Baxter’s side.
Brought to Sandy Park in the summer of 2017 from the Ospreys, Baxter has...
A pioneering project to predict the spread of COVID-19 in the UK, and evaluate the impact of quarantine restrictions, has received a substantial research grant, it has been announced.
Dr Leon Danon, from the University of Exeter, has received a grant of £220,403 to develop an essential new tool to forecast where and when the disease will spread across the country.
The grant has been awarded as one of 21 new projects, funded by the UK Government, as part of the £24.6 million rapid research response funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and by the Department of...
A Devon volunteer's amazing dedication to the community café she helped set up at her church has won her a prestigious award.
Alison Stephens – a member of the City’s Methodist Central Hall congregation – has just been named one of Methodist Insurance’s eleven regional winners in its national Church Volunteer Awards.
She beat hundreds of other nominees, winning a £1,000 prize for the church, and she now goes forward to a national final where she stands to win even more.
