JCU Vet science student turns her spare time into lifesaving support making funky face masks

A JCU Vet science student is choosing to make lemonade out of lemons while she has little extra time up her sleeve.

Fourth year vet science student Chandani Lodhia has not sewed since high school but has been making face masks for her uni friends and family for the last couple of days since her rotation classes were cancelled because of COVID. PICTURE: MATT TAYLOR.

A JCU vet science student is using her spare time to make face masks after losing her job and having university classes cancelled due to coronavirus

Chandani Lodhia came up with the idea after her father expressed concerns about customers in his pharmacy not practising social distancing.

Ms Lodhia said she had not sewed since high school but she bought a sewing machine and made 50 masks over two days from about 10 metres of fabric.

The 25-year-old said had chosen pop-culture material to make the masks, including animal print for her vet science uni friends, and had sent “a big batch” to her family in Melbourne.

Ms Lodhia said they were not medical-grade masks but believes wearing a mask can create good habits. “They are a nice way to promote social distancing for a start and to promote being hygienic and not touching your face,” she said.

It takes Ms Lodhia 15 minutes to make each mask and she said she was completely self-taught.

“I am going to keep making masks and hope … that I will get better at sewing. I thought I was going to buy a game console but buying the sewing machine has been a great investment.”

Originally published as JCU Vet science student turns her spare time into lifesaving support making funky face masks