Nottingham Hospitals Charity turns 15!

Making headlines

Back in January 2010, the Charity made news headlines when an anonymous donor gave £100,000 for a new state-of-the-art ultrasound system at the Trent Cardiac Centre; providing surgeons with 3D imaging of their patients’ heart function, aiding diagnosis and treatment.

In the same year, funds of £15,000, donated by Councillor Barrie Cooper, saw the installation of a new Ultrasonic Cardiac Output Monitor at Nottingham Children’s Hospital. Within hours of being installed, the equipment had already helped to save the life of a six-month-old baby.

In April 2012 another momentous donation of £120,000 was given to the Charity to fund a dementia research project. Local businessman Professor Tony Marmont generously made the donation following his personal experience of caring for his wife Angela, who had Alzheimer’s.

Creating a home in hospital

In April 2014, the Wolfson Cystic Fibrosis Centre opened its doors, ready to care for more than 250 patients across the East Midlands. The centre was jointly funded by Nottingham Hospitals Charity and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, with the aim of doubling the capacity of care in a building devoted to their specific patient needs of infection control and isolation.

Nottingham Hospitals Charity provided over £2.1 million of funding for the centre, which included a significant donation of £700,000 from Lord Simon Wolfson, allowing the new centre to feel like ‘home in hospital’ for patients.

Ground-breaking appeals

Our Big Appeal for Nottingham Children’s Hospital launched in November 2016, raising over £500,000 to allow refurbishments to family accommodation. These changes give parents comfortable surroundings to stay in, whilst their children spend time in hospital.

Part of this appeal was the Big iMRI phase, raising a phenomenal £1.6 million for an intra-operative MRI scanner, along with £1.3 million raised by the University of Nottingham. Thanks to our amazing supporters, the iMRI scanner was unveiled in December 2020 and has helped to transform the care of children being treated for brain tumours at Nottingham Children’s Hospital.

Caring for our NHS during the pandemic

In March 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic hit, we launched our emergency appeal to support NHS staff at Nottingham Hospitals during this time of crisis. Thanks to the support from the community of Nottinghamshire, we raised over £300,000 – far beyond our original target of £100,000.

Generous donations from across the local community enabled us to fund emergency food packages, sleep pods, wellbeing centres, refurbished rest areas, and relaxing outdoor areas, to enable staff to take a break during busy and challenging shifts. We also secured £363,000 of funding from NHS Charities Together, to deliver a psychological support programme for staff whose mental wellbeing had been affected during the pandemic.

In September 2021, we were able to announce that our Long Covid Research Appeal reached its £50,000 fundraising target in a short six months, enabling the Charity to provide funding for vital, time critical and local research into this debilitating condition.

Looking ahead

With the ongoing support of our donors, we plan to fund even more important projects across Nottingham Hospitals over the coming years.

In 2022 we’ll be launching our Hayward House Appeal, to support patients and their families at this special palliative care centre in the grounds of the City Hospital. Please look on our website for more news about this appeal in the New Year.

We will continue to fund important local research projects into a range of conditions, invest in our dedicated NHS workers as they strive to provide the very best care for patients from Nottinghamshire and beyond, and provide enhanced patient care across our hospitals.

Thank you so much for your support over the past 15 years!