CHILDREN at Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI) will benefit from new toys and games thanks to the generosity of one of its young patients.
Five-year-old Sergio Worsley, from Bradford, wanted to say thank you for the brilliant care he has received in the Children and Young People’s Unit at BRI.
To do so, he presented hospital play specialist, Catherine Piggott, with £700 in cash and vouchers from his mum’s employer – TK Maxx, Halifax – as a special thank you.
Sergio’s mum, Cat Worsley, said: “We spend lots of time in hospital because Sergio has suffered from recurrent chest infections since he was two years old. He spends up to two weeks there each time.
“He always plays with the toys and they really cheer him up, so it means a lot to both of us that this donation will be used to buy more toys for children who are in hospital.”
Hayley Collis, Head of Fundraising for Bradford Hospitals’ Charity, said: “Toys make such a positive difference to our young people, who are often struggling with treatment and missing home.
Fantastic toys
“This generous donation from Sergio and his mum’s employers, TK Maxx, will buy some fantastic toys to help distract and calm our patients.
“While the NHS funds the very best treatment and care, extras such as toys and distraction equipment, which help our young patients so much, must be paid for by charity donations.
“Thank you to TK Maxx, Halifax, for making the donation and to Sergio and Cat for thinking of us.”
To find out more about Bradford Hospitals’ Charity and how you can support your local hospitals through donations, fundraising or volunteering, visit www.bradfordhospitalscharity.org.
Bradford Teaching Hospitals’ Children and Young People’s Unit also has its own Amazon Wishlist, which allows people to buy items for the unit. All wishlists can be found at https://bradfordhospitalscharity.org/give/gifts-in-kind/.
Alternatively, contact Hayley Collis or Elaine Drake on 01274 274809 or email charity@bthft.nhs.uk
ENDS
Note to editors
About Bradford Hospitals’ Charity
- Bradford Hospitals’ Charity is one of more than 250 NHS charities in 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:BTHFTcharity LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/bradfordhospitalscharity
- 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.