Do you enjoy meeting people, and making a difference in your community? Have you got a few hours to spare? If so, our Well Wishers charity wants to hear from you!
The Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust charity raises money for items above and beyond what the NHS can provide, and this includes enhancing services so that our patients and their families have a better experience.
Last year was a real success story for Well Wishers. A £15,000 appeal to help create a new sensory room for children with disabilities and complex conditions was reached in under a year. Shelfield’s Child Development Centre now boasts a feature to be proud of with outdated and broken equipment replaced and a brand new ball pit.
And money raised in memory of popular former Walsall Manor Hospital patient Lauren “Lolly” Wilkinson has created a chill out room for teenagers being treated on the children’s ward at Walsall Manor Hospital. Lolly’s family managed to raise £5,000 following the 17-year-old’s death from a cardiac arrest after an asthma attack in January 2017. The money came from donations at her funeral as well as from the wider Darlaston community who knew the popular Grace Academy student. This total was boosted by additional Well Wishers fund raising.
A large proportion of fundraising is done through the Purple Hub in the hospital where books, DVDs, jigsaws, cards and home-made items are sold – over the 2018 Christmas period this netted £5,000 for Well Wishers.
Now the charity needs volunteers – of all ages – to help sell its items in the main atrium of the hospital as well as support sales at events throughout the year.
Fundraising Manager Georgie Westley explained: “Members of the public are really generous and regularly bring their books and other donations into the Purple Hub to be sold so that the cash can be ploughed back into services.
“Thanks to cash raised through the hub we’ve been able to buy all sorts of things including a new scooter to help patients with mobility issues get around the hospital when they attend appointments. It would be a fantastic support to the charity if we could get together a group of volunteers who could offer a couple of hours a week here and there to help us set up a charity stall in the main atrium of the Manor.
“This is such a worthwhile role and we hope to be able to attract enough volunteers to be able to run a few sales each week.”
Interested? Need to know more first? Contact Georgie on 01922 656643 for a chat or send her an email to Georgie.Westley@walsallhealthcare.nhs.uk