Staff member creates over 250 wellbeing bags for frontline staff | News

Kaya Jeyarajah, an Anaesthetic Clinical Fellow here at Royal Surrey, took the initiative to independently create over 250 wellbeing bags for staff members to encourage them to take some time for themselves when they are not working during this difficult time.

Kaya is a health and wellbeing advocate for the Trust and wanted to focus on wellbeing initiatives across the hospital with a closer look at environment, nutrition, movement and self-care.

For her latest campaign, called ‘#thankyouNHS’, she enlisted the help of a graphic artist who draw her vision, creating the logo that would front the campaign.

Kaya crowdfunded to have the logo printed onto 250 tote bags, which donated goodies from small businesses and brands, many of whom were extremely generous and donated everything from yoga and acupressure mats, to water bottles and aromatherapy products. 

After receiving so many wonderful donations, Kaya said: “My house became full of boxes and I was excited about what I was going to create.

“The bags were based on different themes of wellbeing such as movement, nutrition, relaxation and self-care.”

The bags were distributed around the hospital to Clandon and Compton Wards, the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Theatres, the Emergency Department and other departments throughout the hospital. 

After spending last Tuesday (5 May) distributing them to many grateful staff members, she said: “I hope they bring our amazing staff some peace and a few precious moments for themselves.

“I hope that after seeing what I have done, other people will feel inspired or motivated to recreate this or similar campaigns for their own teams.”

You can also watch staff members receiving the bags in this video.