Thank you!
We were delighted to welcome Get Active Challenges Director Dave Kelly to officially present the money raised from entry fees for the recent SASH Challenge fitness challenge.
As COVID-19 hit, over 1,300 local people set about tracking their solo exercise, including their home workouts, daily lockdown exercise allowances, virtual bike rides and more, while raising funds to support the staff at Surrey & Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust who are on the front line of caring for people with COVID-19 from across our area.
We’ve been genuinely blown away by the support from the local community. And seeing your photos through the challenge was a real inspiration.
We’ve seen individuals taking part, as well as whole families, and staff from across SASH NHS Trust. Airport firefighters tracked their relay marathon on the runway at Gatwick Airport, and everyone who took part got an exclusive commemorative medal.
The funds raised have already directly helped staff in the height of the first part of COVID-19, including foot massagers for staff in intensive care, sleep and wellbeing packs for staff in intensive care and our respiratory wards, new sofas and coffee machines for staff rest areas (including in the Emergency Department). You’ve helped us be able to study the psychological impact of the last few months on staff in the hospital, to help understand how best staff can be looked after to recover from the difficult experiences, and challenges of the last few months.
With the help of this, and other fundraising during lockdown, we are developing more plans too, to benefit staff across SASH NHS Trust.
We are hugely grateful to the team at Get Active Challenges for their incredible work to make the challenge happen. Helping recruit and inspire participants, designing the incredible medals, and ultimately helping raise a significant sum of money to help us go further for NHS staff at this unusual time.
If you have pics of you with your SASH Challenge Medal, we’d still love to see them – tag us on social media @sashcharity and use #sashchallenge.