To celebrate the birthday of our NHS this year, Northamptonshire Health Charity had a series of activities happening across the first week of July. Here’s a snapshot of what was going on to celebrate our local NHS for its 74th birthday:

Isebrook School’s NHS Heroes Fun Run

The day after the charity’s own Superhero Family Fun Run, the team was delighted to support Isebrook School on their very own Superhero run at Wicksteed Park. Maybe not strictly part of the NHS Big Tea theme but all students and teachers thoroughly enjoyed themselves supporting the great work of our NHS Superheroes, many of them dressing up as nurses, doctors, and surgeons. They raised over £900 for the Twinkling Stars appeal for the new maternity bereavement suite at Kettering General Hospital.

Staff & Students enjoy Lunch on the Lawn at the University of Northampton

The University of Northampton helped the charity to celebrate the 74th birthday of the NHS on Tuesday 5th July with their wonderful ‘Lunch on the Lawn’ event.  Students and staff had a fantastic time with the activities available, including a smoothie bike, which proved very popular indeed.

Lorraine Devereux, Community Fundraiser said:

“We would like to send our thanks to the Community Champions at both local Morrison’s stores in Northampton (Victoria Promenade and Kettering Road) for kindly donating the fruit and the juice for the bike.  There were plenty of activities for people to enjoy including a tombola and lunchtime entertainment from Donna Bray, Subject Lead for Nursing, who played the trumpet.”

The total raised from this lovely event was around £385 which was split equally between the Children’s Outside Play Area appeal at Northampton General Hospital and the Twinkling Stars Appeal at Kettering General.

More thanks to local Morrisons for supporting our local NHS staff

“Another huge thank you to Deborah – Community Champion at Morrison’s Kettering Road, Northampton for bringing down 80 fantastic snack packs to the charity office,” said Lorraine.  One of the charity’s other Community Fundraisers, Michelle Leighton joined the NGH Volunteers to give these out to staff across the hospital via their Brew Buddy service on Friday 8th July.

Stacey, Community Champion at the Corby Morrisons store kindly donated 100 snack packs for staff at Corby Community Hospital – part of Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) – as part of celebrations for the NHS Big Tea week.  These packs included a teabag, coffee, hot chocolate and a couple of biscuits or sweet treats to be enjoyed by staff when taking a break from their busy day.  Community Fundraiser, Lorraine and April, who was with the charity for work experience during the week, delivered the packs to the very grateful staff at the community hospital.

Community Champion at the Morrisons store in Kettering, Trish, donated biscuits and cakes to go with the complimentary tea, coffee and hot chocolate for the KGH Volunteers Brew Buddy service, on which Lorraine and April accompanied a volunteer to support staff across KGH on Friday 8th July. 

Lorraine concluded, “It was a really exciting and enjoyable week celebrating the birthday of our NHS. We were able to distribute hundreds of treats to staff across the three NHS Trusts we support thanks to the generous donations from four local Morrisons stores. We are grateful to everyone who got involved and together, we made a difference!”

Find out more about the work Northamptonshire Health Charity does across the local NHS hospitals at their website https://northamptonshirehealth…