An Edinburgh pharmacy has donated £3,000 worth of products to a hygiene poverty charity. 

C+D’s The Pills winners Ather Diab and Farhad Mehmood co-own Bruntsfield Pharmacy and they donated around 1,000 individual products themselves to The Hygiene Bank as well as announcing their partnership with the charity as an official drop-off point for the public to donate too. 

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Since the launch of the drop-off point in February, the co-owners said the uptake has “noticeably increased every week” as more people have come to donate hygiene products. 

The pair said: “When we first introduced this initiative, we wanted to lead by example. So we worked closely with The Hygiene Bank to identify the items that were most in need and we ordered these products through our pharmacy wholesalers for the purpose of donating it all.  

“To date, we’ve contributed a total retail value of over £3,000. Hygiene poverty is experienced by many patients and is commonly witnessed by pharmacies all over the country. We believe our role to support patient health can go beyond advice and prescriptions. 

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“We are committed to delivering comprehensive care that supports our patients' mental and physical well-being in a holistic way.” 

The Hygiene Bank’s 2024 report on hygiene poverty showed around 4.2 million adults in the UK are impacted by hygiene poverty, around 8% of the adult population. 

It added the rising cost of products meant 69% of those experiencing hygiene poverty had “to choose between paying for food or bills and buying toiletries and cleaning products”. 

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Bruntsfield Pharmacy’s Diab and Mehmood bought their pharmacy in 2023 at the age of just 23, snapping up the chance to take over the Lloydspharmacy that use to be in their premises before it exited the high street and sold all 1,054 of its community pharmacies that year. 

Their pharmacy was nominated for Independent Pharmacy of the Year at the 2024 C+D Awards – you can enter for our 2025 awards here.