Hi,
I feel like I know and have met a lot of people across the Trust, but if you don’t know me or we haven’t met I am Denise Gee and I manage our hospital charity ELHT&Me.
I am super proud of my role, the charity itself and the small team who deliver incredible amounts of fund-raising – Emma Heinicke, Demi Houghton and, of course, our furry mascot Elmore.
I wanted to guest blog to talk more about ELHT&Me including our roots and recent growth as well as our plans for the future and how we go about our business.
I’ve been here since 2017 when the charity rebranded and relaunched in a bid to become a more effective part of East Lancashire Hospitals family.
Since then, I’m happy to share, we’ve seen it grow into an entity that now makes a real difference in its support to staff and patients across the Trust, providing equipment, facilities, health and wellbeing support and anything that makes a difference that is beyond standard NHS provision.
We have been stretched during the pandemic, no doubt, but we were determined to continue to move forward, working tirelessly to providing support colleagues deserved.
It always makes me smile when I walk around the Trust sites and see the projects funded by the charity in daily use, whether it’s the children playing in their purpose-built playground, a cup of tea in some of our superb new breakout spaces or getting feedback from staff on the use of a new piece of equipment that is making a real difference for them and their patients.
I do want to bust some myths though too whilst I have the chance:
• The charity doesn’t really fund anything! It is through the generosity of local business, entrepreneurs, the community and staff and patients that we are able to make all of this happen
• Our role, through increasing awareness and engagement, is to persuade people to make ELHT&Me their charity of choice, provide the means for people to donate and then prove our credibility by delivering projects that directly support staff and patients
• The loop is then closed, the Trust and the charities credibility is demonstrated and donors continue to donate
One of the biggest roles we do is providing the means for people to donate by organising events, supporting community fundraisers, facilitating legacies, gifts in wills, grant applications, on-line appeals and our ever popular online raffles.
This is where you will find Emma at work – and you are as likely to see her in your local pub in the evening supporting a community fundraiser as you are to see her in one of the hospitals.
Demi is also hard at work growing our social media following, keeping our website up to date and providing all the online giving and online raffle tools, as well as supporting physical events.
Just like colleagues across the Trust, we’re not a 9 till 5 team, with evening and weekend work usually the life blood of ensuring we’re raising as much money for the charity as possible.
The next exciting step towards making ELHT&Me a real force within local and regional charity circles is the creation of a new charity hub – based in the former Air Ambulance and Millercare units next to the entrance to Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospitals.
This development will give us great footfall and a prominent presence that will provide better accessibility to the community, staff and patients that we serve.
The space will contain a charity hub with all the information about the charity, what it does, upcoming events and details on how people can support their local hospital charity. We will also be adding a new retail outlet that will add to the current offering in this area, combined it will make a fantastic space for anyone to pop in, browse, partake in some retail therapy and have a chat with us about all things charity related.
I also want to give a plug for the ELHT staff lottery which has recently moved into the charity team and has its own webpage so that you can see details of the draws, the lucky winners and get information about how you can join.
With a monthly jackpot of £1,000.00 and several other cash prizes this is a fun way for anyone to get involved and support the charity. We are also reviewing the monthly pay-out fund so that more people get the opportunity to win, so now is a great time to join here.
And lastly to mention the campaign ‘Every Penny Counts’ which encourages colleagues to donate pennies from their monthly salary to the charity. An example would be that if you earn £650.39, the 39p would be donated to the charity and whilst it might seem like a tiny amount it can have a huge impact.
Imagine if 1,000 staff members joined in and please take a look.
As you can see, there are lots of ways that you can help the charity and why not start by following us on Facebook or Instagram @elhtandme to get our updates, see what we are doing and join our journey.
Our Morecambe Bay Walk on 9 July is already half full, so time is running out to sign up for this unique event. Another date for your diary is 25 September when the Big NHS Walk returns to its two routes that start from Blackburn and Burnley hospitals.
I hope this update has helped you to understand the structure and strategy around ELHT&Me’s fundraising and indeed how we spend the money to support others.
The results are amazing, people’s generosity always surprises me and we will continue to work tirelessly on your behalf.
One last smile I want to share with you before I go is the support, engagement and collaborative working we have seen recently – which really does show that the charity is becoming the number one charity for colleagues in particular. Thanks to everyone who is supporting us and raising money – it really is appreciated.
The Marsden Stroke Rehab ward training for the Yorkshire 3 peaks
Daniel James ready for the Manchester Marathon in April
Burnley’s Primrose Unit preparing for their Pendle 3 peaks challenge
Blackburn’s Chemotherapy Unit’s team have set themselves a huge challenge and since their appeal was launched they have run, walked and raffled. Lisa and Dominique will be conquering the Manchester Marathon and then they’re on the search for their next fundraising event.
We really do have the most amazing colleagues and the teams that fundraise together have told us how there is an immediate morale boost and a real team bonding experience and how rewarding the whole journey is.
Support us if you can, follow the links and see what we are doing, we look forward to hearing about what you would like to do in the future.
Thank you,
Denise Gee, Charity Manager