Bradford Hospitals’ Charity makes a big splash at dragon boat festival

Bradford Hospitals’ Charity enjoyed a record-breaking turnout at Bradford Dragon Boat Festival.

More than 250 people – made up of hospital staff and supporting businesses – descended on the Saltaire festival to row and raise money for the NHS charity, which works in partnership with Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (BTHFT).

The 12 teams – more than any other charity has ever had for the multi-charity day – have so far raised more than £16,000. Corporate team Watson Buckle, who were raising money for the charity’s neonatal fund, won third place in the multi-charity championships.

You can view the full list and links to their Just Giving pages at https://bradfordhospitalscharity.org/event/dragon-boat-festival-roberts-park-saltaire/

Staff from across BTHFT took part in the festival, from Acting Chief Executive John Holden, to clinical and non-clinical staff from departments such as Radiology, ENT, Maternity and the Neonatal Unit.

Four corporate teams from Watson Buckle, Howard Civil Engineering, Cardinal Ltd UK and Associated Waste Management raced for the charity, as well as the staff from Bradford Council’s waste department.

Hayley Collis, Head of Fundraising for Bradford Hospitals’ Charity, said: “We are overwhelmed by the amazing support we received before, during and after the festival. More than 250 people wearing purple Bradford Hospitals’ Charity t-shirts arrived Sunday morning to race and raise money for our hospitals and we can’t thank them enough.

Best care and treatment

“The money raised by our team of dedicated supporters will be used to fund equipment, training, research and support our staff to provide the very best care and treatment. We’ll see you again next year!”

The multi-charity championships day on Sunday 23 June saw 45 teams racing along the River Aire in Roberts Park, Saltaire.

Joint festival organiser Razwana Mahmood said: “As always, I am delighted with the participation of Bradford Hospitals’ Charity, as the teams bring so much fun, energy and friendly competitiveness to the event. They have set a record this year for our Multi Charity Championships Day, for the number of teams they have entered.

“I have an enormous amount of respect for the NHS and I consider NHS staff our unsung heroes, so I feel very privileged to have them participate at Bradford Dragon Boat Festival.”

Last year, the festival raised around £60,000 in total over three days, with around one third going to the Lord Mayor’s Appeal and two thirds to charities taking part in the multi-charity championship.

The X-Raycers, who are made up of staff from the Trust’s radiology department, are raising money for the charity’s big Rays a Smile appeal, which aims to raise £250,000 to make radiology services more child-friendly.

For more information about the appeal, visit https://bradfordhospitalscharity.org/rays-a-smile/

To find out more about Bradford Hospitals’ Charity and how you can support your local hospitals, visit www.bradfordhospitalscharity.org. Alternatively, contact Hayley Collis or Elaine Drake on 01274 274809 or email charity@bthft.nhs.uk

ENDS

 

Note to Editors:

Bradford Hospitals’ Charity teams racing were as follows (click the link to visit their Just Giving pages):

 

  • Bradford Hospitals’ Charity is one of more than 250 NHS charities based around the UK. It supports the strategic direction of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust by funding projects which go over and above what he NHS provides.
  • Did you know that, together, all NHS charities give £1million every single day to the NHS!
  • In 2017, a new £28million wing opened at Bradford Royal Infirmary, which was part of a £75m investment to improve patient care across our hospitals. It provides world-class facilities for the elderly, children and a brand new intensive care unit. Bradford Hospitals’ Charity provided £260,000 to enable the Trust to create family friendly environments, state-of-the-art equipment and innovative distraction toys and games for young people.
  • With the support of Bradford Hospitals’ Charity, BTHFT was also able to provide more cots, including intensive care and high dependency cots, new family accommodation, a revamped counselling suite and a dedicated room for mothers to express milk for pre-term babies when the new neonatal unit opened in 2015.

For further media information, please contact Kelly Thornham, Communications Officer, at communications@bthft.nhs.uk or call 01274 382265

Twitter: @BTHFTCharity                Facebook: bradfordhospitalscharity Instagram:bradfordhospitalscharity LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/bradfordhospitalscharity

 

Note to Editors:

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust:

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is responsible for providing hospital services for the people of Bradford and communities across Yorkshire. We serve a core population of around 500,000 and provide specialist services for 1.1 million people.

Our 5,500 staff work over several sites, including Bradford Royal Infirmary, which provides the majority of inpatient services, and St Luke’s Hospital, which predominantly provides outpatient and rehabilitation services. We also manage local community hospitals at Westwood Park, Westbourne Green, and Eccleshill.

In early 2017, a new £28 million wing opened at Bradford Royal Infirmary, part of a £75m investment to improve patient care across our hospitals over a five-year period. It provides world-class facilities for elderly care, children’s services, a state-of-the-art intensive care unit with increased single-room provision and a retail concourse.

The new wing is a continuation of our work to improve patient experience after our new £2 million neonatal unit officially opened in January 2015. Our maternity services were recently shortlisted for the Royal College of Midwives’ (RCM) Midwifery Service of the Year Award, recognising excellence and innovation in the provision of maternity care.

In 2017, we also completed a £2m refurbishment of our Emergency Department (ED) as part of an ambitious vision to create a more efficient acute medicine service for the people of Bradford. It has been designed to provide a slicker and more efficient service, with faster senior clinical involvement at an early stage in the patient pathway.

As a teaching hospital, we are at the forefront of education and development in healthcare, and have an excellent reputation for research performance. We are one of the leading centres in conducting applied research in the country, particularly in quality and safety, elderly care and rehabilitation.

The Trust is home to the Bradford Institute for Health Research (BIHR) where researchers have led the development, validation and implementation of the award-winning Bradford Electronic Frailty Index (eFI) which helps calculate an elderly person’s risk of disability, impairment, falls and complications of chronic diseases, as well as their diminishing independence and capability. This is now being used by 98 per cent of all GPs across the country.

Our award-winning Ophthalmology department is home to numerous worldwide clinical trials taking the lead in eye care research and we are one of only three sites in the United Kingdom to be enlisted in the Perioperative Enhanced Recovery Hip Fracture Care of Patients with Dementia (PERFECTED) study, which will investigate how the NHS can introduce better standards of care to improve outcomes for people with dementia.

Follow us on Twitter: @BTHFT

For more information please visit www.bradfordhospitals.nhs.uk