Excerpt from the December newsletter from our Co-Chairs, Janet Louth and Pat Harper. Click here for the full newsletter.
“News from Savernake Hospital
We are always pleased to hear how our health-related grants have benefitted those at Savernake Hospital and in the wider community. We were therefore delighted when two representatives of Ailesbury Ward attended our November committee meeting to tell us how our two “Ailesbury Transformation” grants were being used.
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Out in the community
In March the Friends provided a vital lifeline to £4,440 to Arts Together for its Wellbeing Service in Marlborough and Pewsey, after it was threatened with closure due to lack of funding. Since 2000, Arts Together has worked with frail older people in rural Wiltshire, providing art projects spread over 30 sessions a year. The Wellbeing Service provides essential support to its members so they are able to attend and participate, and also enjoy a home-cooked nourishing meal together.
Other grants made by the Friends this year have included funding towards the Pewsey Community Area Partnership’s purchase of two Raizer chairs for Community First Responders (CFRs). The Raizer chairs enable a single CFR – attending a call to tend to an elderly person who has had a fall but is uninjured – to help that person to their feet safely without needing an ambulance to be called out.
Other grants have included funding of equipment for local surgeries, as well as grants to the Community Nurse Team and Cotswold House based at Savernake Hospital.
Supporting Brighter Futures
We end the year delighted to announce that the Friends have just pledged £10,000 towards Brighter Futures’ “Better Births Appeal” for new equipment for the Maternity Department at Great Western Hospital, including mobile foetal heart monitors, variable height cots and a new birthing bed.
A word of thanks
We must thank the Friends volunteers who run the hospital Shop, for taking the trolley shop up to Ailesbury Ward each weekday and for all their baking and craft-making for raffles. Thank you also to our fellow trustees.
Thank you to those who have made donations over the past year which allow us to continue to support the work of our local health professionals and the services they provide.
And thank you to all of you for continuing to take an interest in the work of the Friends.”
December 2019
