TRH The Earl and Countess of Wessex visit Salute the NHS, Bicester

The Earl and Countess of Wessex paid a visit to the Salute the NHS initiative in Bicester.  They joined volunteers to prepare food packs for NHS frontline workers across the UK.

Jointly set up by Ron Dennis CBE, founder of the McLaren Formula 1 team and Nigel Harris, the owner of Absolute Taste, the temporary operation is based at Hangar 113 at the Bicester Motion site.  Lieutenant Colonel Billy Dykes and Lieutenant Colonel Lyndon Robinson were assigned by Bicester Garrison to lead the team of volunteers, which initially mostly consisted of army regulars, veterans and employees from Absolute Taste and McLaren, but has now expanded to include the whole community and over 1000 people from Bicester have helped to pack meals.  The operation is close to providing 1 million food and care packages to NHS workers, with Unilever and Tesco providing the majority of the supplies free of charge and Yodel delivering the packages across the country.  It will be wound down in mid-July.    

The Earl and Countess were met by Tim Stevenson on arrival and introduced to Ron Dennis and Nigel Harris who gave them a good introduction and overview of the project.  They were introduced to volunteers, shown the contents of the boxes, and watched the volunteers perform their song “Happiness is the Key at Hangar 113”.  TRH were given the opportunity to pack boxes and meet more volunteers along the production line before meeting representatives from the Oxford University Hospitals Foundation Trust. 

After a few words of thanks from Ron Dennis, TRH signed the “Hub Heroes” wall before departing.