The North East’s largest building society has donated a vital supply of hand sanitiser to communities in the Yorkshire Dales after partnering with a local distillery in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Spirit of Swaledale ordinarily makes hand-crafted gin inspired by the dramatic mountains and gorges of the Upper Swaledale landscape. But since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, the Muker-based distillery has added the production of hand sanitiser, following a recipe approved by the World Health Organisation.

Now a supply of the hand sanitiser has been bought by Newcastle Building Society and distributed free of charge to the Upper Dales community for local people to use. The building society, which opened a branch in Hawes earlier this year, is working hard to keep its branch network open during the outbreak to enable customers to make essential transactions.

“We’re pleased to be able to do what we can to support our communities through these difficult times,” said Stuart Miller, customer director at Newcastle Building Society. “Across our branch network we’re working hard to maintain a safe and healthy environment and this responsibility extends right throughout the community.”

“We all know how important regular handwashing and hand hygiene is at the moment. We also know that hand sanitiser can be very difficult to get hold of – especially in more rural areas – so we’re delighted to be working with Spirit of Swaledale to make a donation of their hand sanitiser to the local community.”

A total of 500 bottles of hand sanitiser have been distributed across the Upper Dales, and are available free of charge from shops and other locations in Hawes, Reeth, Gunnerside, Muker and Keld.

“We were keen to contribute to the effort against the coronavirus outbreak and help protect the people in our community,” said Ian Purves, founder of Spirit of Swaledale. “Although making hand sanitiser is a bit of a change from the production of gin and rum, we were able to follow a simple and highly effective formula.

“The challenge has been around distribution, so the support of both Newcastle Building Society and the Little White Bus has been instrumental in getting the finished product to those in our community who need it most.”

In response to the coronavirus outbreak, last month the Society also made a £100,000 contribution to the £1m appeal set up by the Tyne and Wear Community Foundation for its new Coronavirus Recovery and Response Fund.

For more information on Newcastle Building Society and its commitment during the Covid-19 outbreak, visit www.newcastle.co.uk or to discover more about Spirit of Swaledale, visit www.spirit-of-swaledale.co.uk