#WanksAsThanks has grown fast, from a one-woman gesture of solidarity to a full-blown fundraising campaign. (Supplied)
Workers in the UK’s adult industry are raising money for the NHS COVID-19 solidarity fund on OnlyFans in a new campaign called #WanksAsThanks.
The way it works is simple. To support the NHS, people can sign up to #WanksAsThanks on OnlyFans for $5 a month, which gives access to daily content uploads – with all the proceeds going straight to the NHS coronavirus appeal.
Performers can also support the NHS by donating their content to be used in the campaign.
And NHS workers can access the content for free.
Adult entertainer Alexxa Vice told PinkNews that the campaign began as a “morale boost” for NHS staff, when performers began to offer healthcare workers free access to their subscription pages on adult sites.
Once it became apparent that there was high demand, this quickly escalated into a full-blown fundraising campaign.
#WanksAsThanks has raised hundreds of pounds for the NHS so far and is seeing daily signups on OnlyFans.
“We know our contribution is minuscule in comparisons to the sacrifices being made by those working for the NHS,” Alexxa says, “but it has been amazing to see the support from all areas of the industry and being able to give back what we can.”
It all started when Alexxa offered free access to her page for NHS workers. Through chatting to other sex workers, she realised that people working in the industry were “super keen” to do something in solidarity with NHS workers.
Now, they have some big name adult performers as well as a couple of production companies on board.
“There has been a fantastic response to the campaign with content donations coming in from all areas of the adult industry,” Alexxa says.
“We’ve lesbian content, trans performers, BG, mainstream and fetish, alt performers and all natural performers, photo sets and videos, all sorts!” she adds.
“It’s been really heartwarming to see the level of support and willingness to help NHS staff in any way we can.”
NHS staff are getting in touch every day to apply for free access to the OnlyFans page, and Alexxa says they have received some “fantastic messages” of thanks from NHS workers who “are grateful to relax at the end of what I can only imagine is a very hard day”.
So far, #WanksAsThanks has raised more than $250 – but Alexxa expects that number to grow significantly, given that subscriptions to the page can be renewed monthly and new content is being uploaded every day.
“So far we have enough content to keep the page running for at least six months continually raising donations,” she says.
“Waking up every day to emails donating content, paid signups whose donations will go to the NHS fund and free access applications from NHS workers has been incredibly heart warming.
“It’s an honour to be able to bring a little bit of cheer in a difficult time!”