NHS Big Thank You event to take place in Whitby this weekend

The event, the brainchild, of Polly Brown of Highgate House, has seen an amazing number of contributions from local hoteliers and other hospitality venues.

In total £40,000 in goods, meals and free stays will be given away by the people of Whitby over the next few days.

Polly’s husband Andy said: “Polly came up with the idea back in March after watching TV coverage of the frontline NHS staff working 15 hour days.

“She said: ‘The only thing I think we can do is give them a nice free weekend.’”

“Within a couple of weeks we had set up a Facebook hospitality page. We committed all four of our rooms and then put out an appeal to see if any other properties wanted to join in.”

A team of hoteliers formed a working committee including Garath Jackson from The Lansbury, Vanessa Gummer from Rosslyn House, Julie Pickard from The Ship and Phill Hesketh from The Belfry.

Andy said: “Six months has passed and here we are. We thought it would be over by now.

“It’s our way of saying thank you for everything you’ve done and thank you for what you’re about to be doing.”

More than 5,000 front-line NHS staff applied to take part and people were chosen at random to receive their prize.

In total there have been 112 winners of free stays, which when added to their families and partners means 400 people will be benefiting from the generosity of the hospitality sector of Whitby.

It’s not just the free stays that have been donated. Andy said: “One of the ladies staying with us also has dinner for two at the Magpie with wine, breakfast at Rusty Shears and drinks at The Ship.

“It’s our way of saying thank you from Whitby, we are proud to express on behalf of the town how grateful we are to them.

“We’ve bought everyone who’s attending a nice enamel lapel badge as a memento. So if you’re out and about in the town and see someone wearing one, please buy them a drink to say thank you.”