Sunday 19 September marked the return of one of the biggest events in our local community, Run Reigate. The event saw the largest team of runners ever assembled for SASH, with 121 hospital staff, family members and supporters hitting the Run Reigate courses to raise money for our hospitals here in Surrey and Sussex.
We just want to say – THANK YOU to everybody who ran, donated, or cheered the SASH runners on.
The event organisers, Run Series, kindly provided 100 free places in the event for NHS staff and supporters, and hospital staff and friends jumped at the opportunity to run alongside others from the local community.
The SASH Charity team included 22 runners from the East Surrey Hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU), who having been very much on the frontline of COVID-19 “wanted to do something nice together as a team” after everything they’ve been through in the last 18months. Their team included critical care doctors, anaesthetists, nurses, healthcare assistants, and others.
Alongside team ICU were teams from across Surrey & Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, including the Acute Medical Unit, Ultrasound, maternity department, and specialist dementia nurse Chris O’Connor (to name just a few!)
Some members of the SASH team ran for the East Surrey Hospital neonatal unit appeal (www.olivesappeal.org) , through which we hope to fund two more state of the art incubators by Christmas, for local babies born prematurely or requiring special care, as well as to enhance overnight facilities for parents of babies in the unit. Olive Murray, who inspired the appeal, ran the childrens race for the appeal.
Other funds raised will help teams go further for patients in our hospitals. For example, helping the intensive care team to provide a specialist rehabilitation chair, to take their patients outdoors safely for daylight, as well as to create a new mural in the intensive care family room which explains how ICU works, to help make the environment feel more welcoming, and helping us to create new rest areas for staff and for visitors at East Surrey Hospital
Check out some of the photos from the day below, and the full gallery is on our facebook page here.
