WHILE the government struggles to keep up with huge demand for personal protective equipment, one kind-hearted teenager is doing his bit to help out.

Theo Lewis from Wanborough put his 3D printer to good use and spent weeks making dozens of face visors for his GP surgery - and now he’s finishing a new batch for a Swindon care home.

The 15-year-old Ridgeway School pupil spent hours carefully overseeing the printing process and tweaking his design to speed it up and make more face shields per day.

He said: “I wanted to help out and do what I could. I saw a design for 3D-printed face shields online and thought I could make some.

“It’s important because the government is doing its best to combat the pandemic and provide PPE to key workers but there are 3D-printing communities working together to create more. I thought I could be part of that community in Swindon.

“The first design took three to four hours to print per mask but now it only takes two and I can print more than one at a time.

“It takes a while but I watch Netflix and Disney+ while keeping an eye on the printer. After half-term ends, I’ll do schoolwork while they’re printing.

“At first, it took a couple of wrong attempts to get everything exactly right but it’s been fine since then, and I’ve had some nice thank-yous from the people I’ve made the masks for.

“I got the printer two years ago as a flatpack and built it with my dad’s help, then used it for little designs and artwork until now.”

Theo made 25 face shields for the Wanborough and Ramsbury surgery before printing some for a radiographer and microbiologist in the area who requested them after his mum Rachel Hingley posted on a local Facebook group.

The King’s Court care home then ordered 40 and offered to cover the costs of the materials - up until then, Theo had paid for the acetate, filament and sealable bags needed to make, print and safely deliver the visors.

Rachel said: “I’m extremely proud of him and of his dedication to this project. I work with children and they tend to start things with a lot of enthusiasm but then give up, but Theo has just kept going with this, I’m really impressed.

“The printing doesn’t stop - it goes on from 7am to 10pm, we’ve now scheduled our meals around when each mask starts and finishes printing.

“The intelligence and ability he has to build the printer, adapt these designs and make something people can use is brilliant. He really enjoys it and I think, inwardly, he’s quite proud of himself.”