THREE self-employed men from Basingstoke raised £500 in donations to feed NHS staff at Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital during the pandemic.

A personal trainer from Buckskin, Nicky Watt, 33, raised £500 from a Facebook live interview with an ex professional ice hockey player, Matt Foord, 38, to feed NHS workers on the frontline. The money was donated by fans from an ice hockey podcast called 4000 and Counting.

Nicky approached Will Nimako, 27, from Will’s Meals and Alex Menicou, 30, from Festival Street Kitchen who helped him cook and deliver 150 meals to Basingstoke Hospital outside Festival Street Kitchen.

Nicky said: “It’s all about giving something back to the community. We did 100 portions of Alex’s curries and 50 portions of Will’s curries, plus three large Mac & Cheese trays. Every meal came with rice and there were 100 bottles of water. The reaction has been phenomenal and insane. It was hard to get stock for the meals because the shelves were bare NHS staff said how good the food was and how much they appreciated it.”

Nicky will also be running personal training sessions for NHS staff.