STUDENT Henry Fernandez has raised almost £1,000 by running a marathon in his back garden.
Henry, from Addingham, said he chose to raise money for Bradford Hospitals’ Charity – the official NHS charity partner of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – to say thank you for the selfless commitment of NHS staff.
Henry’s dad, Dr Eduardo Moya, is a paediatrician at Bradford Teaching Hospitals, so he has witnessed first-hand the incredible dedication and commitment front-line clinicians have made in the fight against Covid-19.
Henry broke the marathon into chunks of 15km and 5km over the space of a week. He said: “I do enjoy running, but I’ve never committed to a distance like that before. I have to admit that it was a lot psychologically tougher than expected.
“The first day was intended to be the hardest. I ran 15km in three 5km chunks, with little rests every 5km, and halfway through the final five. I had a hydration station set up with Lucozade, a chocolate cereal bar and Haribos to keep me going. I changed direction every 5km and at the final 2.5km, for the sake of variety and mental stimulation.”
After the initial 15km run, Henry spent the rest of the week running at least 5km each day, with just one day off.
“I’m overwhelmed by how much I have raised. It’s phenomenal,” he said. “But It’s important that everyone who works for the NHS knows how much we support them. Doctors and nurses are on the front line helping others. We are so lucky to have such a fantastic NHS and we should take a great sense of national pride in it.”
Hayley Collis, head of fundraising for Bradford Hospitals’ Charity, said: “This is a brilliant achievement for Henry and I’m sure his dad will be proud to see him supporting our NHS family.
“Running a marathon is no easy task, but running such a distance around your garden, even broken up over a week, is very challenging. Thank you, Henry, and thank you to everyone who donated!”
So far, Henry has raised £944 of his £1,000 target. If anyone would like to donate to help him pass the £1,000 mark, please visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/henryfernandezbackyardmarathoncovid19bradford
All money raised will go to Bradford Hospitals’ Charity’s NHS Hospital Heroes appeal and will be spent on supporting staff through the crisis, supporting them longer term and purchasing equipment and services to enhance patient care and treatment.
You can find out more about the Bradford Hospitals’ Charity NHS Hospital Heroes appeal at https://bradfordhospitalscharity.org/nhshospitalheroes.
ENDS
Note to Editors:
- 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
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.