Public urged to send 'thank you' messages to NHS staff as part of outdoor art installation coming to Edinburgh

People are being urged to send personal messages of thanks to NHS staff as part of a new touring outdoor art installation.

Artists have launched “This is Gratitude,” a new outdoor installation featuring 49 human form sculptures, all sponsored by a number of businesses who want to show their gratitude to key workers.

Messages from people across the country will be selected to take part in the initiative ahead of visits to Edinburgh, Birmingham, London and Manchester, starting in August.

Online greeting card company thortful sponsored one of the sculptures after raising more than £100,000 for NHS Charities Together. Thortful have started collecting messages on a new online noticeboard and a selection of these will be incorporated into the sculpture for the special tour.

Thortful have launched a new initiative to collect thank you messages for the NHS.

A spokesperson said: “Undeniably, the pandemic has given us a fresh perspective on the importance of our NHS and its staff. With that in mind, thortful have created a noticeboard of messages that everyone can contribute to.

“The new noticeboard is a collection of thank you messages from the public. Anyone can leave a message and they can give thanks to friends and family who work within the NHS or medical staff as a whole.

“Collectively as a nation, we have had opportunities to thank the NHS in various ways. But thortful want their noticeboard to be a space where individual people can give a personalised thank you.”

thortful is an online greetings card marketplace for independent creatives to sell their designs. Artists are paid industry-leading royalty rate each time one of their card designs are sold.

Here are some of the messages the noticeboard has already received:

“My mother is part of the 'most vulnerable' group and by association as is my father. They have been taken care of so incredibly well with no fuss and always with a smile. I couldn’t thank those in the NHS enough for their tireless and often unseen fight over the past year.”

“Dear NHS, thank you for working tirelessly on the frontline of the COVID19 pandemic. We were all scared and yet, with face-mask bruises, late nights, hot and sweaty uniforms and distancing yourself from vulnerable loved ones, you've managed to pull us through. I love the NHS!”

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