Harvey's Gang allows youngsters with serious illnesses such as leukaemia to become trainee biomedical scientists for the day and tour pathology labs with their families to see first hand the work that is being done to help them and others.

First started at Worthing Hospital in Sussex, the project is now taking place in a number of NHS hospitals throughout the country and looks set to go international.

The scheme was launched in memory of eight-year-old Harvey Buster Baldwin, from Sompting, West Sussex who received treatment for leukaemia at Worthing Hospital for 18 months.

Whilst staying on the children's ward he asked what happened to all his blood samples, so staff arranged for a special visit to the pathology lab where he was given his own white coat, a trainee biomedical scientist badge and shown how to process his own blood.

Sadly, Harvey lost his fight, but when chief biomedical scientist Malcolm Robinson was shown a picture of Harvey and himself at the funeral, he realised just how much the experience had meant to him and his family.

Within a week, Worthing Hospital had named a new blood grouping machine in his memory and Harvey's Gang laboratory tours for sick children was born.

The original Harvey's Gang coats were plain children's lab coats ordered from ourselves and then altered by hand by staff at the hospital with iron on transfer logos.

When they approached us to order more coats and we got talking, we explained that we could manufacture bespoke children's lab coats with coloured pockets and collars and embroider their logos for them.

The finished product featured the Harvey's Gang logo on one breast and their newly signed-up sponsor Handelsbanken on the other. Manufactured in a number of sizes, the coats were given a hospital blue collar and three external patch pockets with a matching blue trim.