00:00When Troy Kavanagh was admitted to hospital for his mental health a few years ago, all
00:07he had was the clothes on his back and a small bag of essentials.
00:13That was until his nurse, Keith Donnelly, showed him through a boutique walk-in wardrobe
00:18in a section of the Prince of Wales Hospital.
00:20Clothing is a necessity and if you don't at that time have an outside source, well, you
00:27were struggling for clothes, so that's why Keith's Closet is brilliant.
00:32It's now teeming with second hand donations, all sorted at this volunteer run warehouse.
00:38And that can happen at the start of admission, it can happen in the middle, it can happen
00:42on discharge, whatever time they would like to access beautiful new and as good as new
00:48clothes, the service is there for them.
00:51The idea was conjured by Mr Donnelly himself, after noticing a lack of basic necessities
00:56for patients at hospitals in Ireland and Australia.
01:00In its first six years, the program has made a real impact across Greater Sydney.
01:04The feeling that when you picked something you liked, you could wear it, it made you feel
01:09better.
01:10Yeah, I admire what he's done.
01:12This week, the state health minister and local MP unveiled the first regional closet at
01:17Shell Harbour Hospital.
01:18The former office space now features rows of stock shelves, mirrors and hand-painted affirmations.
01:24What Keith Donnelly has done here is added another layer of support to those people.
01:30If anyone wants an old suit from a politician, I'm sure it'll be the last thing that gets
01:36borrowed or picked up.
01:37Helping the vulnerable, one outfit at a time.
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