President's Report

"Another successful year" - A massive £62,028.61 raised and £49,919.39 given back to the hospital making a massive £1.1. million raised so far. £62,028 is a magnificent sum and represents much hard work not only by members of the League but also other good friends of the Friends. Earnings and donations come in all sizes, from the thousands to the few pennies. All have to be worked for: all are gratefully received.

The coming year will be a challenging one with our exciting new venture of the shop. If this is to be a success we shall certainly need to expand our small band of members and helpers and we have the challenge of finding new volunteers. The President's message; a big thank you and a big "keep looking". So 2008 is a year of recruiting new volunteers and fundraising.

Dr Colin Reisner - President

Picture right: B & Q Distribution Centre (CEVA) held a Family Day for their employees and gave a surprise presentation at the Hospital Ball of £9,200, to be used within the Queens Hospital.

Chairman's Report

Fundraising and looking after the welfare of the patients in hospital is not a new idea. A gentleman by the name of John Wood used to cycle around the local pits and breweries in the 1870’s, shortly after the Burton General Hospital was opened – this was called the Saturday Collection and was continued by John and his friends for many years. In 1911, the Ladies Committee held a Sale of Work raising over £80.00 (Courtesy of Dennis Bladon "From Abbots to Queens")

Nearly 140 years later The Burton Hospital League of Friends, formed in 1980, has moved on quite a lot since then and we pride ourselves that in these 27 years we have raised well over £1.1 million pounds. During all this time Volunteers dedicated to supporting the patients and staff within Burton Hospitals has continued to perform this charitable work and I am pleased to report that during 2007 this was sustained. Our outline within the town and beyond is quite well known and we are a respected organisation outside the boundaries of Burton Hospitals.

You will see within the report that we have again raised a substantial amount but not without some unavoidable problems. The Golf tournament had to be postponed and then cancelled due to the heavy rain. However we again had a successful Hospital Ball, a great Dog Walk, along with very thriving Raffles, Sales Tables, Tombolas, Nearly-New Book Sales, all held within the Hospital.

On a personal note, I have been busy attending numerous meetings and seminars, keeping up to date with the many changes in law that need to be met when working with volunteers and charities. As Chairman, I am invited to visit many differing organisations and groups to accept donations and to talk about the work that we carry out - both within the League and Phoenix. I have now been involved with the League of Friends for 26 years and in my 20th year as Chairman. I am hopeful that 2008 will bring our greatest challenge yet when we open our shop in the Hospital Entrance, but this will not be possible without the complete dedication of the present and also new volunteers. Picture: Paula Clark, Chief Executive of Queens Hospital presenting Pauline with her 25-year award.

Phoenix Hospital Radio continues to broadcast to the patients of Queens Hospital and I am ever grateful to Chris Twigg, Station Manager and his team for their consistent hard work in ensuring all works well, the station is well manned by the many volunteers and that the equipment is fully operational – both in the Studios and when on outside broadcasts.

Much hard work and enthusiasm goes into our differing fundraising projects and this could not happen without the work of the volunteers who give their support constantly both to the League of Friends and to me personally. My thanks go to everyone, as it is only with this co-operation and working together that we succeed as an organisation. Special thanks also to Sheila Jackson, Treasurer, for ensuring that our books are always in order and to Rita Ross, Secretary, for keeping us on our toes with the paperwork.

My thanks to all and my wish is that we all "pull together" to make 2008 a step in a new direction for the League of Friends.

Pauline Spratt - Chairman

Secretary's Report

At the end of 2007 our membership totals 41.

Our present Committee and “active” members equates to approximately two-thirds of this total, who work extremely hard to raise the much needed cash for Queens Hospital. The other one-third are our Supporters and Life members.

We are a small fund raising group, appreciative of the time and hard work, freely given, by all of our members but with the opening of our shop in the near future we will need more members to make this successful.

The small membership fee is £2.00 (single) or £3.00 (joint) and we would welcome you to contact us to join the Burton Hospitals League of Friends.

For contact details click here...

Rita Ross - Secretary

Phoenix Radio - Station Managers Report

OK, hands up whoever stole last year from me! It was only last week we had the last one of these shindigs wasn't it? I suppose I’m not alone in thinking that the last twelve months, like the 12 months before that, seem to get faster and faster every year. That’s one of the first signs you know? The dreaded "O" word! But then, when you sit back and think about things, well, a lot has happened in the last year and we have done pretty well to fit it all in.

We are a pretty busy bunch and, although it doesn’t always look like a gaggle of headless chickens running around, there is always a lot going on and usually the next project is just around the corner waiting to be started just before the previous one is finished. The reason such calmness exudes from what could easily be scenes of chaos is because we have the right people doing their allotted jobs and as they all know their area of expertise, there is no need for anyone else to be concerned, worried or even involved, as we know the right man is on the case. Believe me, that makes the job of Station Manager a lot easier than it would be otherwise.

The same goes for the presenters, they know their trade, they know their "customers" and for that reason they are left to do what they do best. The contact I have with the patients whilst ward walking is another source of immense pride. I can think of nothing that makes anyone feel better than the thanks I get for the job done by all parts of the membership.

New members are now starting to become regular faces, as we now have programs five nights a week and their training is being done by each presenter which should see a significant increase in available presenters in the near future.

The constant stream of outside broadcasts, discos and other fundraisers, which include the ever-popular picture quiz, is meeting the finances. In fact the picture quiz is proving so popular that many other charities are copying it. Ah well, imitation and all that...Once again we were able to benefit from the Round Table Santa's sleigh collection, which netted us £628 from a very busy, but also very cold and wet evenings work. Many thanks to all who took part, not only the members of Phoenix and the Round Table crew, many of whom are just friends of a friend type persons, but were generous enough to give up a night for us (and most likely the following week due to frost bit and/or swamp fever.

The studio complex is another ongoing project. It will all be done one day, maybe. But it’s moving in the right direction and is a good working base that has better facilities than I can ever remember at this stage in it's "near" completed state. The second studio will be a major project in the future which will also be a very good way of emptying the bank account, so as always, it is imperative that we all maintain the momentum of fund-raising. About £12,000 to £14,000 should cover it!

The Myriad playback system has just had an "upgrade" that alters the way it works, so this should be a source of comical confusion for a good while yet, but change keeps us all young doesn’t it, whereas the death of the old computer caused our technical lads to age rapidly just prior to Christmas.

So, that just about sums up the good bits, but like all things in life, there is always some part that is not such a happy time and this year it was the news that Cee has left us to concentrate on other charity activities. For those that didn’t know Cee, she is a truly amazing lady who belies her years with an ability to adapt to new technology instantly and was one of our presenters earlier (a very good one as well) and of late, a great assistant to John in the upkeep of the library. But I know she spent quite a while deciding on which way to jump and we were the unfortunate losers. We wish you all the best Cee and as you know, the door is always open.

With recent family events, if nothing else, I have been perfectly placed to get a feel for the services we provide to the patients and it is just then that you realise that all the patients only know we are there for their amusement and entertainment if they are told about us. It doesn’t matter that last weeks lot knew about us as that was last week and this is now, so our push has to be to keep on banging our drum and making the patients aware that we are there. Ward walking is the obvious starter as that not only informs the patients, but also actively involves them. But to really be effective, we need to cover all the patients who come into the hospital every day and that would be far more requests than it is possible to play, so that will be one of the new challenges this year, to make the patients more aware of us.

To all of the volunteers, I would like to give you my heart-felt thanks and to the families of those volunteers, I would like to thank you for your selflessness in allowing me to hog the free time of your nearest and dearest. Wishing you health and happiness.

Chris Twigg - Station Manager

Officers and Committee Members

Other Documents

• Click here to see some patient comments about the League of Friends
• Click here to see a letter from a patient about the League of Friends