Twin mum Safina Aziz is planning to mark her 40th birthday in style by jumping out of a plane and racing the dragon for Bradford Hospitals’ Charity!
Super mum Safina, of Shipley, is planning to take part in Bradford Dragon Boat Festival on Sunday, June 23 and complete a skydive on August 3 – all before her big birthday this October. She chose to raise money for Bradford Hospitals’ Charity because she sees on a regular basis the huge difference charity funds make to patients and their families.
“My little girl, Inaaya, spends a lot of time in hospital because she has a rare genetic disorder as a result of which she suffers from chronic inflammatory bowel disease and needs a blood transfusion every four weeks,” said Safina.
“We spend a lot of time on Ward Two at Bradford Royal Infirmary and the play staff are just brilliant. Inaaya has received Christmas presents, Easter eggs and the charity funds all kinds of activities for the children. This helps so much as we are there for a long time, and it distracts her from the fact she has a cannula in her arm.”
Safina juggles being mum to Inaaya and her twin brother, Faaris, (both six), with working as a legal advisor.
She said: “I will be jumping out of a plane on my 17th wedding anniversary, so we will probably celebrate it as a family having fish and chips in Bridlington.
Skydive
“I’m quite nervous, but relieved I won’t be doing it on my own as there are 15 people doing the skydive for Bradford Hospitals’ Charity.”
Safina will be joining the X-Raycers team at Bradford Dragon Boat Festival. The X-Raycers are made up of radiology staff, who are raising money for Bradford Hospitals’ Charity’s Rays a Smile appeal. They are one of 12 teams rowing for Bradford Hospitals’ Charity this year – each raising money for their own hospital ward or department, with some local companies also taking part to raise money for the charity.
Hayley Collis, head of fundraising for Bradford Hospitals’ Charity, said: “Our play staff and nursing team do everything they can to make hospital as fun and full of distractions as possible for the children coming in for procedures such as blood transfusions. We’re so glad that Inaaya has benefited from their activities funded by our charity.
“We are also honoured to have Safina on board at this year’s Dragon Boat Festival and for her to join us for our skydive! She is set to be one of our fundraising superstars this year!”
To sponsor the X-Raycers, or any of the dragon boats rowing for Bradford Hospitals’ Charity, visit https://bradfordhospitalscharity.org/event/dragon-boat-festival-roberts-park-saltaire/ for a full list and link to their Just Giving pages.
To sponsor Safina’s skydive, visit her Just Giving page at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Safina-Aziz1
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:
- For more information about our Rays a Smile appeal, visit https://bradfordhospitalscharity.org/rays-a-smile/
- 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% 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.
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For more information please visit www.bradfordhospitals.nhs.uk