A STUDENT nurse and her dad are working round-the-clock to produce face protection needed by hospital and care workers during the coronavirus crisis.

IT consultant Stephen Vaughan and daughter Emma-June have been operating their 3D printer night and day since Thursday after their offer to make the masks was taken up by health workers.

Requests for several hundred masks sparked the need for an extra printer to cope with demand, and led Stephen, 48, from Clynderwen, to set up a crowdfunding appeal.

“It just went ballistic,” he said. “We originally planned to just make around 20 masks but now we can see there is no way we could stop at that.

“We’ve had requests from hospital staff from just about every ward at Withybush, as well as private companies in the care sector and the police. There are so many people wanting them, that I’ve had to draw up a spreadsheet

“So we thought we’d put up an appeal on GoFundMe and it’s gone crazy – we more than doubled our goal of £300 by the weekend and have already ordered a second printer”

Emma-June 23, who is a mental health nursing student at Swansea University, came up with the idea for the face protection, which sees a plastic guard attached to a 3D printed headband.

“I already had a 3D printer so thought why not – it would be a great gesture to help,” said Stephen, who previously taught computer science at Castle School, Narberth. “The first delivery went to mental health services in Pembrokeshire, but since then, requests have come from everywhere.

“It’s not a quick process as each headband takes 45 minutes to print, and we’re taking turns to do the night shift to keep the printer going.

“Currently, we can turn out around 30 a day, but obviously things will speed up once we get the second printer.”

“The reaction from people is what makes it worthwhile, when nurses say ‘thank you, thank you, this is going to save lives’, it really hits home.”

Stephen and Emma-June have now set up Face Protection for Pembrokeshire page on Facebook, as well as the GoFundMe appeal, which is called '3D printed face guards for front line NHS staff'.

Stephen added: “The more people we can get involved, the more face protection masks we can get out there to our wonderful front-line staff.”