Southampton NHS Treatment Centre raises £7,000 for charities

Company news

Oct 22, 2015

The hard work and perseverance of fundraisers at Southampton NHS Treatment Centre is set to benefit charities by £7,000 as health and social care provider Care UK announces its match-funding total for 2015.

Each year Care UK, which runs the centre on behalf of the NHS, supports colleagues raising money for UK-based charities through its Working with the Community match-funding pledge. As a result, Care UK has match-funded employees’ charitable efforts nationwide to the tune of £16,000 this year.

One of Care UK’s top individual fundraisers during the past 12 months has been Francesca Cortvriend, Operations Manager and Deputy Hospital Director at the treatment centre, who raised money by taking on the tough 100-mile Ride London event which includes the notorious Box Hill in Surrey. With match-funding from Care UK, Francesca raised £2,480 for the Alzheimer’s Society.

Francesca, who lives in Andover, explained: “My father is recently diagnosed and struggling with the condition. Seeing first hand all the challenges that this presents him and my family, I was galvanized into positive action; fundraising in those circumstances gives you a real passion to make a difference”.

“The training was the most gruelling part. I calculated that I had spent about 70 hours covering more than 1,000 miles around the hilly countryside of Hampshire, Wiltshire and Berkshire in addition to a further 25 hours in the gym and pool over the eight weeks preceding the event in August. 

“Really generous support from my friends, family and Care UK via the match-funding scheme provided a tremendous support to help me through some very challenging training days and moments when I felt I could not go on.  It was the incentive I needed to persevere and maintain the confidence that I could really achieve something so worthwhile. I was touched by how many of my supporters told me how Alzheimer’s disease had affected them personally and the lives of someone they love.”

Elsewhere in the centre more than £730 was raised for the Piam Brown Ward, the regional paediatric oncology and haematology unit for Wessex at Southampton General Hospital, through Tracey Coffin, while lots of cake baking, tombolas and a silent auction helped to raise just under £1,500 for Children in Need.

This year the centre raised £245 for comic relief by holding a cake sale and a further £385 for Macmillian Day with 10 hours of consecutive static bike cycling. One of the staff undertook voluntary work in the Atibie Hospital in Ghana and £140 was raised in support of the hospital by selling consultant gynaecologist Smita Jain’s homemade samosas. 

Colleagues in Care UK also raised a total of £2,000 for Naomi House Children’s Hospice in Winchester. Southampton NHS Treatment Centre Hospital Director Paula Friend said she was very proud of her team and of Care UK’s support for fundraising. She said: “Here in Southampton we have a team that are dedicated to improving people’s wellbeing, both at work and by giving freely of their personal time to support the local community and charities.

“That level of commitment is shared by colleagues nationwide and this match-funding initiative helps them to make the most of their hard efforts, both in one-off events and in long-term support of a charity, hospice or organisation. Well done to everyone who has taken part in the events.”