A LOCHWINNOCH newsagents has made their own hand sanitiser to help those in the community during the coronavirus crisis.

Suzanne Reid, who runs The Paper Shop on the villages Church Street, has put her knowledge in herbs and essential oils to good use to create her own gel.

Made from vodka, eucalyptus, melissa and aloe vera, customers are encouraged to help themselves after entering and leaving the shop.

“If you want hand sanitiser, you either can’t get it anywhere or if you can, it’s really expensive,” Suzanne told the Gazette.

The Gazette: Suzanne ReidSuzanne Reid

“I have qualifications in Zoo Pharmacognosy. which is the science of animal self-medicating. I work with herbs and essential oils with the animals and I am also studying herbal medicine.

“I know that you can make the hand sanitiser from alcohol, so I had a bottle of vodka in the cupboard that had been there for ages and I had some aloe vera - I know that eucalyptus and melissa is anti-viral so I mixed them together to give it a go and to see what happened."

She added: “I think having it makes people feel cleaner and we are all doing what we can - it means when people can have a wee spray of it when they are coming in and out of the shop.

“I have ordered some more ingredients so I can make more, and we can give it to the locals, until the pharmaceutical company’s make more for people to have access to.

“With the locals that come in, a lot of our customers are older so it’s more for them, if they’ve come in and touched the door, it means that they can use the hand sanitiser.”