Edinburgh security guard at Royal Infirmary goes viral after Jamie Lee Curtis shares story of his knitting

Edinburgh guard knits boots, hats and mittens for premature babies

A kind-hearted Scots security guard who spends part of his shifts knitting garments for premature babies has gone viral – after a Hollywood A-lister shared his story.

The nightshift guard, known only as Bruce, works at Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary and produces tiny woollen boots, hats and mittens for children born weeks early. He then passes on the much-needed knitted items he makes to the capital hospital’s Simpson’s special unit for premature babies.

The security officer made the headlines with his hobby three years ago but his story has proved popular again after movie star Jamie Lee Curtis shared the story to her 2.8 million followers on Facebook this week. A Fish Called Wanda star Jamie Lee posted touching pictures of Bruce sitting at his work desk surrounded with knitwear and simply stated he was an “Influencer”. The film star’s post has attracted close to 4,000 comments from admirers across the world and been shared a massive 16,000 times.

Colleague Nicola Miller first shared Bruce’s story in a social media post three years ago describing his pastime as “very thoughtful”. Nicola, an overnight social care worker, said: “Tonight at work I asked Bruce if he minded if I took a picture of him to send to Simpson’s special care unit for premature babies and to post on social media. Bruce works as a security guard and in between his checks and his own work he sits and knits for hours every shift to post all his items abroad for premature babies and into neonatal at Edinburgh Royal. He’s very thoughtful and I think this post should be shared I’m sure all the babies families will be so grateful for what Bruce does.”

And this week thousands of social media users have joined Halloween star Jamie Lee and left touching comments regarding Bruce’s heart-warming knitted donations. Emily Jack posted: “I had little booties and a beanie donated to my son when he was in hospital - what a great man.”

Becca Wilson said: “My little boy was born in April 2 months premature at 33 weeks and was in Edinburgh [hospital]. He knitted for my little boy. I’ll forever be thankful without him nothing would have fitted my little boy as him being premature was so unexpected and he still has his things to this day.”

And Charmaine Macinga added: “What a wonderful person to do that. God bless him.”