Charity News
On a mission to be the best in children’s healthcare
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| FUNDRAISING TEAM: Left to right, Jacqui Quantrill, Veryan Grant, Suzie Pearce and Alexander Voccia. Echo picture by Joanna Mann. Order no: 6380885 |
THEY have a huge task ahead of them that will benefit Hampshire's smallest people.
Their efforts will offer a massive boost to medical care for youngsters in the south - and make Southampton a leader in children's healthcare.
A new charity launched in the city today is on a mission to build a smart new children's hospital.
The multi-million pound hospital will bring all the children's services at Southampton General Hospital under one roof and give youngsters somewhere they feel comfortable and at home while receiving treatment.
The Daily Echo-backed Southampton Hospital Charity is officially unveiled today and has the tough task of raising between £2m and £3m every year.
Its mammoth list of challenges for the future includes ambitious plans for a state-of-the-art children's hospital, as well as paying for refurbishment, equipment and improvements at the general hospital, the Princess Anne maternity hospital and Countess Mountbatten House, which provides palliative care.
The charity's president, Lady Brabourne - formerly Lady Romsey - is giving the charity her full support.
With plans for a children's hospital in the pipeline, Southamp-ton Hospital Charity's first project is to fund a much-needed makeover of the hospital's haematology department, at a cost of at least £3m.
Director of fundraising Veryan Grant and her team of fundraising officers - Jacqui Quantrill, Suzie Pearce and Alexander Voccia - are hoping to get the backing of Southampton on top of the support they are getting from Lady Brabourne and the seven celebrity patrons.
Veryan said: "We are launching a new era of active fundraising.
"The charity has been in existence in some form for about 15 years and we are really grateful for all the donations and fundraising that has gone on, but we are finding there are lots of exciting projects on the horizon we could do if we had more charitable funding.
"We have always had lots of brilliant supporters, but there will be more of a drive for fundraising now, with a new look and a logo so we hope people will recognise us.
"It is such a huge site here at the hospital, with so many fantastic projects we can do. We hope we can make what is already a great NHS hospital even better so it exceeds the expectations of patients and visitors. We also want to make it a world class environment for staff."
In recent years, fundraising has paid for a new ambulance for the paediatric intensive care unit to transfer children from other hospitals to Southampton for specialist care, as well as artwork to brighten up the radiography department.
Other fundraising projects already being planned by the new charity include refurbishing the hospital's accommodation for relatives, enhancing the haematology department, and funding research with Southampton University.
The Southampton Hospital Charity will also be working closely alongside all the existing charities that work to support the hospital, such as Wessex Heartbeat, the Asthma, Allergy and Inflammation Research (AAIR) Charity, the Friends of the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Charity.
"All the staff are very passionate about their own wards and departments and they all have great ideas for projects that could enhance their areas, which they are putting forward to us," said Veryan.
"We will be looking at them all from a fundraising point-of-view.
"We are going to be helping all the departments across the trust to fundraise for projects that will enhance the hospital."
The charity is being launched today with an unveiling of a 10ft monolith bearing the charity's logo outside the hospital's main entrance by charity patron BBC South Today's Roger Johnson. Thirteen-year-old Zoe Reavey, who was born prematurely at Princess Anne Hospital, is due to attend the launch with her father Shaun.
Zoe, from Southampton, will be cutting a cake to mark the launch of the charity, then distributing slices to new mums at the hospital.
2:56pm Monday 10th March 2008
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