How your donations will be spent

All donations will be spent on things that will help enhance the emotional health and well-being of patients, adding real value to the medical care and treatment patients are already receiving.

Our initial fundraising will be to support patients on the Cardiothoracic Directorate which consists of two Cardiology wards, Coronary care, Cardiac day-case unit, Cardiothoracic outpatients’ clinic and a Cardiothoracic surgical ward.

We expect to spend your donations on the three following areas of support:

1. The purchase of items that will support the emotional health and well-being of patients whilst in hospital:

• To provide accessible funds for staff to buy refreshments for distressed relatives, or to buy appropriate “treats” for patients (ice lollies, for instance, for when on a carefully controlled fluid intake and the weather is hot), maybe a much-needed item of nightwear …………. The fund is there for staff to be able to buy whatever a patient needs to help them feel even more cared for, listened to and stronger emotionally.
• The purchase of a minimum of 6 ipads, protective covers and Norton anti-virus software (for watching TV, for listening to music, talking with a relative in Australia ….)
• The purchase of a minimum of 6 light hand held hairdryers (we all feel a lot better to have a hair wash and a shower)
• To purchase additional Stargazer chair beds so that there is one in each ward area of Cardiology, allowing relatives and carers to get a better night’s rest whilst staying overnight with their relative.
• The purchase of an additional mini fridge / freezer for storage of ice-pops etc for patient

2. To fund some activities to support and engage patients and add skills, which can not only be used on the ward but also once they are back at home, that will help them cope better when they feel low or anxious.
This may include weekly scheduled activities such as:

• Mindfulness workshop – 30 minutes twice weekly
• Gentle chair-based pilates – 30 minutes twice weekly
• A weekly mini hairdressing workshop for small groups of patients
• A weekly head massage mini workshop for small groups of patients

3. To refurbish both the Relatives’ Room and the Quiet Room on C3 Corridor.

• To turn the Quiet Room into “Y Cwtsh”:

A safe place that hugs the family of patients. This room provides an essential space for very distressed and vulnerable relatives to have those poignant and so important conversations with each other, with clinicians and nurses.

Currently the room is bare and clinical. Yet so much heartache is felt there, takes place there and so many tears are shed in there.

With great care and sensitivity, Daring to Dream® wishes to create “Y Cwtsh”. The fund will provide soft furnishings at the windows, gentle colours on the walls, gentle lighting, softer and kinder furnishings, a bottle-fed water dispenser, and some art work that expresses and soothes the raw emotions that visitors to the room will be experiencing.

• To refurbish the Relatives Room:

Many of us have experienced being the relatives who are with our loved ones in a hospital location, including overnight. Sometimes, just because they are so poorly, it is important the medical staff restrict how many of the family can keep vigil with their loved one. Therefore, a Relatives’ Room is essential to wait in, to have access to bathroom facilities, as somewhere to warm up some food and drink, and as somewhere to relax in a bit and even sometimes, to snatch a bit of sleep in.

Just like the Y Cwtsh, the Daring to Dream® fund will provide soft furnishings at the windows, gentle colours on the walls, gentle lighting, softer and kinder furnishings, and some artwork that expresses and soothes the raw emotions that visitors to the room will be experiencing.

We hope to provide, as part of the new furnishings, a bed / chair so that a relative can get a bit of much needed sleep.

Added to that, we will ensure that there is a small refreshment area.

There will be access for relatives to charge their phones and a plasma TV on the wall.

Importantly both these rooms are accessible for relatives across the Cardiology wards and can also provide a potential location for some of the mini workshop activities.