Hi my name is Zoe 
and I have been volunteering for PICCPals since it was first created five years ago. As a group, based in the Southend area of Essex, we fund, make, pack and ship PICCline covers completely FREE of charge to patients in mid-long term treatment (postage is also free). We supply 23 hospitals across the country as well as posting to patients directly. Many of our volunteers are, or have been cancer patients, so we very much understand how brutal it can be 
. If anyone would like any further information or has any questions about how to order sleeves or spread the word, please feel free to ask away! This is our website https://www.piccpals.co.uk/home
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Wow what an amazing charity! Thank you for sharing. I know where to go if I need to 
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@zedolina thank you. I have got 3 of your sleeves and my unit have put your card up on the noticeboard 
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Thank you for sharing our details with your unit - I hope more see it is … So many people still don’t know that we exist or that there’s a catch to what we do… and there really isn’t - we just want people to feel a little more comfortable during their treatment and not have to rely on tubigrip which is dull!
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Thank you - we also adapt tees for ports - again completely free of charge.
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@zedolina although I started my treatment in January, I have followed all the monthly chemotherapy threads for August until February as I wanted to know what was in store for me. I think it was the October thread where I saw PiccPals recommended. At least, they are the ones who seemed to turn all this into a huge shopping opportunity 
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I did see some mention of picclines in the monthly threads but not of PICCPals. I’ll see about adding in a comment as people might not venture to the coffee lounge???
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@zedolina yes, it would be good I think to post about PiccPals on every monthly chemotherapy thread going forward.
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Thank you for sharing about PICCPals for anyone who has a PICC line and hasn’t heard about our charity. We are 100% voluntary and we provide colourful or plain piccline covers made in 1cm increments completely free of charge to anyone going through mid-long term treatment. There’s no catch - we’re just a bunch of sewists who made scrubs through the pandemic and wanted to continue to give back using our sewing skills. We started as 7 and now can count over 70 volunteers in our community. We’re growing fast but people are still having to use tubigrip or (worse still) pay for them!
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@zedolina used to live in your county and I’ve got an overlocker so if I still did, I would definitely be joining your sewists 
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How good would that be? Although there are other ways to help… when you’re through treatment 
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Do you have any advice on measuring for the cover before its been installed haha
I can’t think of another way to describe that!
Is adding 2cm to your arm measurements ok?
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Hi - it would be best to wait but if you want to be prepared then I would order 1cm bigger than your arm currently measures. There is a bit of stretch in the sleeves and you want them to fit snugly (not tightly). You can always let us know and we can replace your sleeves with a bigger/ smaller size… Hope that helps…
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Ok I think I will wait instead of getting ahead of myself because I can be a bit of a fuss pot haha Thank you
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I think that’s wise… when are you having it fitted?
Soon hopefully. I’ve had a phone call from the PICC team, just waiting on the appointment to be booked. Treatment is due to start 9th March
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@foxgem, I waited until mine was installed then measured 33cm around my arm and over the business end of the picc line but I’m squeamish and think I had the tape measure too loose as my covers slide off. My own fault! As @zedolina said, you need them to be snug but not tight so measure firmly.
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Thank you for sharing this, I’ve had my picc line put in today and just placed an order!
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