Friends of Chorley Hospital keep the kettle on the boil!
The kettle at the Central Lancashire Breast Unit at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital is being kept on the boil by the Friends of Chorley Hospital!
Members of the group, which celebrates its 75th anniversary next year, have teamed up with Rosemere Cancer Foundation, donating £1,000 to the charity’s coffers to ensure a two-year supply of teabags, coffee, sugar, milk, cordial and biscuits.
The friends’ donation means all patients and anyone who attends with them can have a free, fresh brew and biscuits or a cold drink while waiting for their appointment.
Yvonne Stott, community and events fundraiser for Rosemere Cancer Foundation, said: “Providing the refreshments service for 12 months costs us £624. In June, we received a £500 grant from the Duchy of Lancaster Benevolent Fund towards the cost but this new donation from the Friends of Chorley Hospital is the icing on the cake. It ensures the service’s future into 2026, which is just brilliant.
“There’s nothing like a brew and biscuit to take the edge off a nervous wait. We are very grateful to the Friends of Chorley Hospital for its support.”
The breast unit sees approximately 120 newly referred patients per week. Of these, around 20 to 30 will become breast cancer patients.
The friends’ donation to Rosemere Cancer Foundation was presented by 81-year-old chair and trustee Enid Armstrong. Enid joined the group 48 years ago in 1976. With her was friend and fellow trustee Allison Gillett, who was a nursing sister at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital before her retirement.
Over the years, the Friends of Chorley Hospital have raised more than £100,000 in support of patients. Through jumble sales and other events, members have funded a minibus, the hospital’s first ever electric rise and recline bed and thousands of toiletry packs, which are still given to patients today, who find themselves unexpectedly admitted on to a ward.
Rosemere Cancer Foundation works to bring world class cancer treatments and services to cancer patients from throughout Lancashire and South Cumbria being treated at Rosemere Cancer Centre, which is the region’s specialist cancer treatment and radiotherapy centre at the Royal Preston Hospital, and also at another eight local hospital cancer units across the two counties, including that at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital.
The charity funds cutting-edge equipment, clinical research, staff training and innovative services and initiatives that the NHS cannot afford in order to make patients’ cancer journey more effective, comfortable and stress-free. For further information on its work, including how to make a donation, visit www.rosemere.org.uk