Red & White Appeal Day 2012: one special day to fundraise for blood cancer patients

Howard Lake | 9 March 2012 | News

Friday 9th March 2012 is Southampton Hospital Charity’s second Red & White Appeal Day.

• Individuals, communities, schools and businesses are joining together to fundraise.
• Senior management, clinical leads, doctors and consultants at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHSFT) will be undertaking a 24-hour Bikeathon challenge from 12 noon on Thursday 8th March until 12 noon on Friday 9th March at Southampton General Hospital.
• The Red & White Appeal aims to raise £1.76million to create a specialist day treatment unit for patients with leukaemia and other life-threatening blood disorders from across Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Wiltshire, Dorset, West Sussex and the Channel Islands.
• One in 25 of us will develop leukaemia, myeloma or lymphoma in our lifetime.
• UHSFT is at the forefront of haematology research with over 30 clinical trials currently taking place to improve haematology treatments.
  With £1.1million raised to date and £660,000 left to raise, the charity hopes to make the project a reality in 2012.

Southampton and the Southern region is turning red and white on Friday 9th March 2012 as individuals, communities and businesses fundraise for Southampton Hospital Charity’s Red & White Appeal Day.
The Red & White Appeal aims to raise £1.76 million to create a specialist outpatient treatment unit for patients with leukaemia and other blood disorders from across the region. This comes as haematology consultant Dr Kim Orchard progresses with clinical trials into targeted radiotherapy treatment. Working with the University of Southampton, Dr Orchard leads one of the few centres in the UK to be able to deliver this form of research, aiming to improve treatment response rates but without increasing the toxic side effects associated with chemotherapy and other treatments for blood cancers.
There is currently no dedicated facility for haematology patients who need day case treatments such as chemotherapy, blood transfusions, platelet transfusions and stem cell collections. At present, patients who need day case treatments have to go to another area, located at the opposite end of the hospital to the inpatient services.
Due to advancements in medicine and a significant increase in the number of patients now receiving treatment, the clinics have also become very overcrowded. Not only is this stressful for patients and nursing staff, but it would also be far better to keep haematology patients, who have low immune systems and can be prone to infection, away from other patient groups.
The Red & White Appeal will fund a dedicated day case unit for haematology patients at Southampton General Hospital, which will be co-located with the inpatient facilities, providing continuity of care and a reassuring and settling environment. The new day unit will create an oasis of calm for patients with shared social areas and also private rooms to aid privacy and dignity. Floor to ceiling glass windows will help to flood the area with natural light and revised working hours for staff will allow clinics to be open until 8pm on weekdays and also on Saturday mornings.
With £1.1 million raised to date, £660,000 is needed to make the project a reality in 2012. Southampton Hospital Charity’s Red & White Appeal Day on Friday 9th March is the one special day when the city and region is encouraged to join together to show its support for the project.
Joan Newman, Bone Marrow Transplant Clinical Nurse Specialist said, “The new treatment unit will make a huge difference to our patients who need to visit the hospital for regular treatments. Please do your bit to support Red & White Appeal Day and help us to provide the best possible environment.”
As well as individuals, communities and businesses fundraising for the Appeal, staff at Southampton General Hospital are also supporting the day with departments dressing in red and white and organising various activities to help raise money. Members of senior management, clinical leads, doctors and consultants at UHSFT will be doing their bit to support the day by undertaking a 24-hour Bikeathon challenge from 12 noon on Thursday 8th March until 12 noon on Friday 9th March in Southampton General Hospital’s Spice of Life restaurant.
Steve McManus, Chief Operating Officer at UHSFT and 24-hour Bikeathon challenge team member said, “It is important that we all do our bit to help raise the funds needed to build this specialist unit for patients in the care of University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. We are delighted that the community and businesses across the city and region have come out in force to support Red & White Appeal Day for a second year and we are grateful for all of the support that we have received for the 24-hour Bikeathon challenge.”
Carrie Bolt, Fundraising Manager at Southampton Hospital Charity said, “Amongst all the bustle of fundraising it is a sobering fact that one in 25 people will develop leukaemia, myeloma or lymphoma in their lifetime. It is really important to me that we not only provide the very best that we can in terms of medicines and clinicians, but also that we can provide the very best environment where patients can receive treatment. This is why we are working tirelessly to make a new treatment unit a reality for patients as quickly as possible.”
Carrie continued, “Over the last 12 months we have gained a huge amount of support from the local community and businesses. This helped to bring us over the £1million mark and now we need another gigantic push to help us towards our goal. We would like to say a huge thank you to everybody who has support the Red & White Appeal so far.”
Veryan Grant, Director of Southampton Hospital Charity said, “The Department of Health has funded state of the art haematology inpatient facilities at Southampton General Hospital at a cost of £5million. The charity’s aim is to complete phase two of the project and build the new outpatient facilities alongside. Red & White Appeal Day is the one day special day when everyone can rally together and help support patients who need to come to the hospital for vital treatment for blood cancers.”
Veryan continued, “With the support of the city we hope to reach our goal of £1.76million as quickly as possible so that building work can start on the new day unit this year. We hope that people will continue to support the Red & White Appeal and help to make a real difference to the lives of these patients.”
For more information about the Red & White Appeal and to make a donation, please visit www.redandwhiteappeal.org or call 023 8079 8881.
To sponsor the 24-hour Bikeathon team please visit http://www.justgiving.com/24hrbikeathon
To donate to Red & White Appeal Day just text RRWW10 followed by the amount you would like to give to 70070. Eg. Texting ‘RRWW10 £3’ to 70070 will donate £3 to the Red & White Appeal.
Ends.
For more information contact Amy Hebditch, Fundraising Officer on 02380 798881 / 07983 397367 or Carrie Bolt, Fundraising Manager on 02380 798881 / 07814 584915.
The Red & White Appeal Day logo is attached to this email.
Please contact Amy Hebditch on 023 8079 8881 or email am**********@*****hs.uk for media opportunities on Friday 9th March.

Notes to Editors:

1) University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest acute trusts in England and operates at three sites across the city of Southampton. It provides hospital services for 1.3 million people living in Southampton and southern Hampshire and specialist services including neurosciences, cardiac care and specialist children’s services to more than three million people in central southern England and the Channel Islands.
2) Every year more than 7,500 staff at the trust see 420,000 people at outpatient appointments, deal with 110,000 attendances at the emergency department and treat 115,000 inpatients and day patients. Providing these services costs £1.3 million per day.
3) In January, independent watchdogs from the Care Quality Commission carried out a planned review of compliance against the requirements of the 16 essential standards of quality and safety at Southampton General Hospital and found the hospital compliant with all 16.
4) University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust has over 20,000 members – ranging from patients, local residents and staff – who have registered an interest in the development and progress of their hospitals. More information on becoming a member is available from www.uhs.nhs.uk/members or from the membership office on 023 8079 5199 or email **@*****hs.uk.
5) University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust has a Twitter page. Twitter is a form of microblogging which enables you to keep up-to-date with the people or organisations in which you are interested in headlines of 140 characters or fewer. Sign up to follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/uhsft to make sure you know about all our latest news.
6) As well as fundraising for ward and department charity projects across UHSFT, a major fundraising campaign, the Red & White Appeal has been launched by Southampton Hospital Charity which aims to raise £1.76million to create a specialist transplant treatment unit for patients with leukaemia and other blood disorders from Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Wiltshire, Dorset, West Sussex and the Channel Islands. For more information, please contact the charity office on 023 8079 8881, email ch*****@*****hs.uk or visit www.uhs.nhs.uk/charity.
7) Follow Southampton Hospital Charity on Twitter at http://twitter.com/charity_shc or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/SouthamptonHospitalCharityUK. You can also find the Charity on LinkedIn: search Groups for ‘Southampton Hospital Charity’.
For more information please contact the Charity office on 023 8079 8881.
Amy Hebditch
Fundraising Officer (Communications & Marketing)
Southampton Hospital Charity
Mailpoint 135
Southampton General Hospital
Southampton
SO16 6YD
T: 023 8079 4093
W: www.southamptonhospitalcharity.org
Charity registration number 1051543
The Red & White Appeal has raised £1.1 million towards its £1.76 million target! Thank you for supporting us ….. your continued support is vital to help us raise enough money to build a new specialist treatment unit for patients with leukaemia and other life threatening blood disorders
Events in March and April: Blood cancer (Haematology) information evening, Sky Dives, Red & White Appeal Day, Corporate Networking Breakfast
Visit our events calendar for more details
Community and Corporate-organised charity events in March and April: Southampton University Science Day, Barclays cake sale, Bath half marathon, Winchester to Southampton sponored walk, Brighton Marathon, London Marathon

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.