Children's Appeal for Lancashire hospitals reaches £150,000 milestone

Baby Clara Bentley, who spent a day on the Children’s Ward at the Royal Preston Hospital with mum Sophie William, raised her arms in a cheer as she watched appeal fundraiser Lucy Clark (left) raise the barometer bar to £150,000.

Lucy and her colleagues from Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s charity team launched the appeal last May.

They have held a Superhero Day, a pub fun day, a sponsored swim and overseen supporters organise tractor runs and other challenges to bring in donations.

With a skydiving day and running events to round off their summer fundraising calendar, Lucy and co are working towards reaching an appeal target of £1m for a shopping list of items to improve patient and family experience across children’s services at the Royal Preston Hospital, Chorley and South Ribble Hospital, Leyland’s Broadoaks Child Development Centre.

At Broadoaks it has plans to build a new outdoor play park assessment area.

The charity has three main areas of support: treatment, research and care, as children’s services at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust treat over 10,000 children from just one-day to 19-years-old, for conditions ranging from breathing difficulties and broken limbs to mental health conditions.

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides district general hospital services to a local community of 390,000 and specialist services to 1.5m across Lancashire and South Cumbria.

To find out more about the appeal, go online to lthcharity.org.uk/childrensappeal