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Bedford Hospitals Charity

History Bedford Hospital Charity

The Bedford Hospitals Charity was founded in 1988 by a group of consultants’ wives, initially to raise money to refurbish the student nurses’ home, which is now Beeden House at Bedford Hospital South Wing. The charity has now, over twenty years later, raised over £6 million for projects at Bedford Hospital.

Bedford Hospitals Charity is led by a dedicated volunteer executive committee and works essentially on a project basis. The charity’s first appeal in 1988 raised over £440,000 to refurbish the student nurses’ quarters, which was officially opened by the Duchess of Gloucester. The success of that appeal paved the way for a number of successful projects. Large fund-raising projects include; the MRI scanner appeal, the Cygnet Wing appeal and the highest profile appeal to date; the Primrose Unit appeal, which led to the creation of the magnificent Macmillan Primrose Unit.

The Macmillan Primrose Unit is a project that the charity is extremely proud of as, it was in fact the Charity itself that first identified the need for a dedicated cancer treatment facility. The appeal involved a very successful partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support, and, after a lot of hard work and dedication, Bedford Hospitals Charity raised over £3 million to build the unit.

The key to the charity’s success has been its ability to work closely with the local community and the hospital itself. Most of the money has been raised through the generosity of local people, either in supporting events organised by the committee, or organising events themselves in support of appeals. There have also been a few large legacies and a number of individual donations. Charitable trusts, particularly local ones, have been very supportive. It is also important to recognise the hard work and dedication of the volunteer helpers who enable the charity to operate with very little costs, which means that over 99% of the money raised goes straight to hospital appeals.

Appeals

Bedford Hospital is extremely grateful for the support we recieve from the charity, and to all of those who work extremely hard to raise money for the charity appeals.

The most recent appeal is the GAMMA PLUS appeal which is rasing money for a new state-of-the-art gamma camera for radiology.  To find out more, please visit the Bedford Hospital Charity website at:

http://www.bedhospcharity.org.uk/