It has been reported that an estimated 3.1 million adults in the UK are affected by hygiene poverty and over 30% of those living in hygiene poverty intentionally miss social events due to feeling too self-conscious.

Hearing these statistics, I am reminded of the charity’s belief that everyone deserves to feel clean, that feeling clean is a basic right and not a privilege, and how Boots has also been living these values for over 170 years. Soap was, in fact, one of the first non-medicinal products that our founder Jesse Boot sold because he recognised that basic hygiene is the foundation of good health and because he believed that everyone should have access to basic hygiene products and healthcare.

This festive period at Boots we have made a commitment to donate 100,000 products to The Hygiene Bank. This donation could help the charity to provide around 20,000 people with a basic care package.

The Hygiene Bank has been a charity partner of ours for a number of years now, starting with the launch of donation points at a small number of select Boots stores back in 2020. I am so proud that as our partnership has grown, so has the number of donations points we have in our stores – there are now over 600 points in stores across the UK.

We’re committed to raising awareness of hygiene poverty through our partnership with The Hygiene Bank, and know how important it is to raise much needed funds as well. With that in mind, The Hygiene Bank will also receive support through a new media partnership that we have launched with “WeAre8”. “WeAre8” is an app which allows customers to earn rewards for watching videos that support social and environmental causes. Until 24 December, users of the app will be able to watch a 20 second video about the Boots x The Hygiene Bank partnership. For each view, 1p is automatically donated to the charity, with users able to choose whether to donate a further 6p. Partnering with “WeAre8” means that we are able to raise awareness of the Boots x The Hygiene Bank partnership with an audience who we know are already engaged with supporting good causes.

I know from being out in stores that The Hygiene Bank partnership is something that both team members and customers are really passionate about. In fact, since our partnership launched, customers have donated over 86,000kg of products which is fantastic to see. As part of our Christmas commitment, we will also be doubling our ‘You Donate – We Donate’ match commitment, which means that for every kg of product donated by customers in store until the end December, Boots will donate two full sized products to The Hygiene Bank.

I want to say a huge thank you to all the customers and team members who continue to support our partnership with The Hygiene Bank.

To find out more about how you can join Boots to support The Hygiene Bank and its beneficiaries, please visit boots.com/help-tackle-hygiene-poverty.