In March, Li Yijing, a lecturer at King's College London, received an SOS saying two hospitals for novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients in London, Guy's and St Thomas', were facing a lack of essential supplies. Li, who knew a COVID-19 test kit manufacturer in east China, began to think what she could do.
She asked a former colleague, Guy Liu, head of the UK campus of the Peking University HSBC Business School, for help. With the consent of the school's committee, they launched a campaign to raise funds for buying 10,000 test kits. In less than 24 hours, they had collected nearly 50,000 pounds ($62,890). Many members of the Peking University Alumni Association in the UK volunteered to help and roped in other organizations, including the British Chinese Community and other Chinese or British university alumni associations. The volunteers finally collected 500,000 pounds ($628,900), which was used to buy test kits, surgical gowns, face masks and other personal protection equipment.
"I had not imagined the campaign could raise such a big amount of money. However, I am not surprised either," Li said, adding that the Chinese community is willing to help others in need.
Due to travel restrictions, they had to grapple with logistics problems but then were told all donations were being transported by the British Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). Though it meant they had to redo the necessary paperwork, still, with the DHSC organizing relief charter routes, they could eventually save a lot of energy on international logistics.
