The Masked Singer's costume designer is helping to make PPE for health workers

The designer has turned his talents from eccentric masks on the ITV show to face shields for the NHS

The costume designer behind the wacky masks on ITV’s The Masked Singer has turned his talents to making personal protective equipment (PPE) for NHS workers on the front line.

Tim Simpson, 46, nearly died from pneumonia in his 20s, so understands the serious nature of respiratory diseases like Covid-19.

When lockdown was imposed, he took his 3D printer home from work and set about making face shields for healthcare workers, alongside volunteers from all over the country.

Now he is part of a network of 8,000 people across the UK making and distributing PPE equipment.

The man behind the mask: Tim Simpson is the costume designer behind The Masked Singer
PA

Simpson runs production company Plunge Creations and designed all the masks for ITV’s hugely popular talent show, The Masked Singer, which was won by former Girls Aloud star Nicola Roberts.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Mr Simpson, who lives with his partner Sarah and son in Hove, East Sussex, said: “It has been amazing. I have never been involved in anything like this.

“There’s this sort of network of people who have never met face to face who are all working frantically to try and fulfil this need around the country.”

So far the organisation – 3DCrowd UK – has supplied 100,000 face shields to over 160 NHS trusts.

An example of the face shields Simpson has been making
PA

Mr Simpson says there remains a huge demand, with orders placed for 600,000 in total.

He added: “There are people working in hospitals who are being told that PPE is coming and yet they are coming to us because they are scared.

The Masked Singer

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“We have frontline workers who are just unbelievably grateful.”

Mr Simpson, who spoke about how he spent days in hospital in Newcastle due to his bout of pneumonia, said Covid-19 scares him.

“It’s a disease that gives me the willies because I know that I might not fair too well if it does get me,” he said.

“I have just got to keep going, making sure other people are going to be alright.”

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