A business which provides a linguistic lifeline for patients using the NHS in Hull and East Yorkshire has now stepped up with support for frontline staff by donating 1,000 re-usable water bottles.

AA Global Language Services, based in King Edward Street, came up with the idea to help hard-pressed staff working at Hull Royal Infirmary, Castle Hill Hospital and Beverley Community Hospital.

The company also donated 500 water bottles to hospitals in the Worcester area, where AA Global was founded nearly 30 years ago and still has an office.

Kirk Akdemir, CEO of AA Global, said: “We work very closely with the Clinical Commissioning Groups in Hull and the East Riding and with the City Health Care Partnership (CHCP) helping communication between healthcare professionals and some of their patients.

“We clap for the carers every Thursday but we also wanted to find some way of providing practical support and after talking to some of our contacts in the NHS we came up with the idea of the water bottles.”

Members of the AA Global team carried out some online research to find a supplier of the bottles which are lightweight and can be clipped to a belt or bag or folded to fit into a pocket and then filled with up to half a litre of water.

The bottles were delivered to the three sites and the gift was warmly welcomed by staff, with the CHCP tweeting: “Thank you so much to @AAGlobal_UK for the gift of water bottles for our fantastic, hardworking colleagues and to our marvellous volunteers for distributing them.”

Kirk added: “We’ve all come to acknowledge and appreciate the fantastic work all our frontline workers do, especially those at the NHS who have been working such long hours in extraordinary circumstances, proving over and over that they are simply amazing!

“We are aware that the workers get really hot and dehydration levels rise during their long shifts and we wanted to do something a little bit different to show our appreciation and to say ‘thank you’ for all they do.”

Simon Nearney, Director of Workforce at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “On behalf of all staff in our hospitals, I would like to express my sincere thanks to AA Global for their kind donation of 600 flat pack water bottles for staff working on the frontline. These are incredibly useful for our staff to ensure they can stay hydrated whilst working and wearing PPE. This kind gesture is very much appreciated and has given our staff a much needed boost.”