Friends Week stories 2008
At Attend, we're all about supporting our members in their endeavours to make their community a better place to be. Here are a few success stories.
New Friends
The League of Friends of the Royal Berkshire Hospital took the opportunity that Friends Week provides to get out and about and meet new people. Their volunteering stand in the Hospital's reception and in the foyer of the local ASDA attracted the desired attention. They have many new volunteers to help with fundraising and even with next years fete.
Coffee at the Queens Hotel
The League of Friends of West Cornwall and Poltair Hospitals held a coffee morning in the sunny rooms of The Queens Hotel Penzance. They raised £762 for the Hospitals.
Surbiton and Tolworth saving lives.
The League of Friends of Surbiton and Tolworth Hospital used FriendsWeek as an opportunity to publicise not only themselves, but also the 'Message in a bottle' scheme. The nationwide scheme was originated by the Lion Club, but as they do not cover the Surbiton and Tolworth area, the Friends took charge. The scheme encourages people who require medication that the Emergency Services would need to know about, to keep information on their medication in an instantly recognisable 'bottle' in the fridge. A green cross symbol on the front door of the house and on the door of the fridge alert the emergency services to the presence of the information..
Friends Week stories 2007
A tasty celebration
The Mansfield Community Hospital baked up a storm in celebration of Friends Week! The cakes and buns baked for the Cake Stall were a hit, and they managed to raise an amazing £151.51 for their local League of Hospital Friends (Mansfield & Sutton). Two of the volunteers, Ann and Eileen, stayed at the stall all morning to sell the cakes.
The hospital was extremely grateful to everyone who helped make the fundraiser a success, especially with huge effort in supplying the stall with all the wonderful goodies.
Charity always in fashion
For Friends Week in October, the Friends of Yeovil Hospital teamed up with Denners department store to hold a charity fashion show benefiting the Yeovil Hospital. The event, featuring hospital nurses and workers as models, sold out all 200 tickets fairly quickly. The nurses were joined by 20 Denners models, and showcased not only nurses uniforms, but also high street fashions. And it was not just women who strutted their stuff on the catwalk. Four men from the hospital joined the ladies in modelling over two hundred outfits in two and a half hours.
Anne Bennett, the chairman to the Friends of Yeovil Hospital, wanted the event to change how people looked at nurses and at the experience of going to the hospital.
"People get rather worried when they come into a hospital, especially when they see these nurses in their uniforms coming with six needles about to do cruel things to them," she said. "What if we show those nurses in their uniforms, not as images provoking anxiety, but as real people?"
The event raised about ten percent of the total £25,000 needed for the purchase of a sentinel lymph node biopsy service. According to the National Cancer Institute, an SLN biopsy can be used to help determine the extent or stage of cancer, and protects against the unnecessary removal of all regional lymph nodes. The Yeovil Hospital will be one of the first in the area to provide this service.