“The offer is there as a thank you from us for helping Halifax” - Beauty salon offering free treatments to NHS staff

After coming up with the idea to offer some pampering to NHS staff as a thank you for their efforts during the coronavirus pandemic, owner Katie Gledhill has received hundreds of nominations putting forward workers for the offer.

“I have friends that are NHS workers so just from speaking to them and knowing what they were going to be up against, we thought we’d try to do something nice,” she said.

“We started off posting on Facebook offering free back massages to NHS workers and for people to get in touch after lockdown was lifted.

“What was really lovely on top of that is we’ve had a couple of clients contact us, because they know our business is reliant on customers coming into the salon, to say ‘in order to keep you going can I make a donation of £20, £30, £40, and can that be given as a treatment to a key worker’.

“By doing that, they’re supporting us but also supporting someone within the NHS or a key worker.

“We put a post on about that and we’ve got over 400 nominations.

“It’s amazing that there’s so many people that have put names forward.

“Some key workers have put forward names of their friends and family, but they’re a key worker themselves, so the people they’ve nominated have then commented back saying ‘don’t forget yourself, here’s your nomination’.”

Katie says the treatments will be staggered so that every nominee is seen once the salon re-opens.

“The offer is there for them as a thank you from us for helping in Halifax at this time,” she said.

“I’m in contact with the lead nurse at Calderdale Royal asking her about the people who’ve been nominated so it’s a real treat for them.

“They can choose whatever treatment they want within the budget, but if we can get more clients involved, which would be amazing, then we can offer more treats to more people.

“I think they do an amazing job anyway on a day-to-day basis, but from the people I know, and the treatment me and my family have received, I’ve seen first-hand that they are amazing.

“In a time like this, the decisions they’re having to make on a daily basis, it must just be absolutely horrific what they’re going through, so they definitely need to have a bit of down-time after all this.

“We want it to go to people who wouldn’t normally do this sort of thing, and for whom it would be a real treat and would never nominate themselves for it.”

Saks is a franchise business but Katie owns the Halifax outlet.
“We’ve come to a complete standstill as a business. we kept on going because I wanted to make sure my girls were protected,” she said.

“I’ve not taken a wage since March to make sure my girls got paid, and I’m one of the five per cent that’s not entitled to anything because of how the categories fell.

“But as long as my girls are looked after, and I want them to be there for me after this.

“And I want our customers to be banging the door down when we can re-open.”

Katie added: “We would love to be able to reward more NHS workers and if anyone else wants to send in a donation for a key worker to receive a treatment once we re-open they can contact our Facebook page ‘Saks Beauty Halifax’.”

If anyone in your family or community is doing something to help the effort against coronavirus, we want to know about it.
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