The Wish upon a Star campaign, offers an easy alternative to sending Christmas cards.

Just download a poster here Wish upon a star message poster A3 2017 put it on your wall and ask friends and colleagues to write a Christmas message on one of the stars.

For every wish you write, put a donation in a pot and send it to the fundraising team.

“We hope the idea will be of particular interest to local businesses and staff, but it’s suitable for individuals as well, and some of our hospital staff have already started writing their Christmas wishes” said Julie Whitton, Over and Above’s fundraising officer.

“Not only will your money go to a fantastic cause, it could also save you many hours of writing cards and help protect the environment.

“Posters can be downloaded and printed in A3 or A4 as many times as you like, or contact us and we’ll send you a copy.”

Julie said “The Christmas Wish upon a Star campaign will boost the Appeal and help us make the new North Devon Cancer and Wellbeing Centre a reality.”

All Christmas Wish upon a Star donations should be sent to the Fundraising Office, Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust, Raleigh Park, Barnstaple, EX31 4JB.

Link above for high quality pdf version

The ASDA Supermarket in Bideford has donated £500 to the Day Surgery Unit.  Former Day Surgery Staff Nurse Caroline Reed approached ASDA Community Manager Peter Wilcox  earlier in the year to ask for support towards her fundraising to paint a children’s mural and purchase toys for our young patients.  ASDA were overwhelmingly supportive and put the Day Surgery project forward in their community  token programme “Chosen by you”.  In addition to the £500 kindly donated by  ASDA, Caroline also raised a further £1,138 through sponsorship for her run in last year’s London marathon, cake sales and much more.  Fundraiser Julie Whitton said “The Day Surgery staff are extremely pleased that Caroline and ASDA have raised such a fantastic amount to improve their waiting room as it will particularly help our younger patients feel more relaxed when they visit the hospital for their operation.”

L-R   Caroline Reed, ASDA Community Manager Pete Wilcox, ASDA Store Manager Steve Uden and Over and Above Fundraiser Julie Whitton

What a night for a fright – celebrate Halloween in style at Over and Above’s Spooktacular Charity Halloween Ball this October.

This year’s ball is taking place at the Royal and Fortescue Hotel in Barnstaple on Saturday 28th October at 7pm. The evening includes a delicious three-course meal, which includes a carvery and trio of desserts, DJ and disco, an auction and lots of fun.

Julie Whitton, fundraising officer, said: “We can’t wait for our popular Halloween Ball. It gives us all a great opportunity to dress to impress with a subtly spooky twist. Fancy dress is encouraged and it would be great to see some spooktacular costumes at the event. Whether you want to be glam or ghoulish, celebrate Halloween with us to raise funds for our new Cancer and Wellbeing Centre Appeal.”

Tickets are just £35 and can be purchased by visiting eventbrite or through the Over and Above fundraising team on 01271 311772 or email ndht.charity@nhs.net.

The funds raised from this event will be used to support the hospital charity’s new appeal. Over and Above is aiming to raise £1.5million to build a Cancer and Wellbeing Centre at North Devon District Hospital. The centre will be a dedicated space available to anyone affected by cancer and other illnesses at any stage of their illness, offering a wide range of information and support services, all within a comfortable and welcoming environment. The centre will also include a relatives’ accommodation wing for family and other loved ones.

Over and Above Fundraising Team Becky Down (painted face), Ian Roome and Julie Whitton

This weekend a Trust team are taking part in the South West Military challenge. They’ll be led by captain Lucy Bates and are asking staff to pledge two pounds to raise money for the North Devon Cancer and Wellbeing Centre appeal.

Deputy team captain Sarah Winfield-Davies is looking forward to the challenge and raising money for such a worthy cause.

Sarah says: “Last year I was diagnosed with breast cancer and I have no doubt that this centre would have been of great support to me and my family.

“I  ask you all to pitch in two pounds now. Let’s get the ball rolling for this amazing new service in North Devon. Any one of us could be diagnosed with cancer and it’s not until you face it that you fully appreciate the value of such a service.”

You can donate at Just Giving here

The full Trust team: Lucy Bates, Gillian Bryan, Jorge Dafonseca, Ashley McClean, Nick McGuirk, Neil Sparkes, Megan Hughes, Julie Cann, Joanne Wilton, Hayley Miller, Sarah Winfield-Davies, Christy Ford and Leigh Skelton.

Thank you to everyone who took part in our fabulous Over and Above Summer Tesco raffle. The winning numbers were 1469, 1668, 1265, 0642, 0170, 1468. Congratulations to the winners, who have all been notified. Thank you to all the Tesco stores across North Devon who donated the fabulous hampers. Because of your wonderful donations we raised a magnificent £1,791. Wow!

Over and Above, the Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust charity, has launched a £1.5 million fundraising appeal to build a new centre to support people with cancer and other illnesses, and their loved ones.

The North Devon Cancer and Wellbeing Centre Appeal aims to raise funds to build a Cancer and Wellbeing Centre on the grounds of North Devon District Hospital. This will be a dedicated space offering a wide range of information and support services to anyone affected by cancer and other illnesses, all within a comfortable and welcoming environment.

Ian Roome, Head of Fundraising at Over and Above said: “We are really excited to launch our new appeal. Our vision is for the Cancer and Wellbeing Centre to be a bright and welcoming space where patients will find all the information they need to support them, including advice and guidance with financial issues, and emotional and psychological wellbeing.

“We want it to feel less clinical than the hospital

environment and we think this will make a real difference to our patients with cancer and other illnesses, and their families and loved ones too.”

The building will have an open-plan lounge diner, a clinic and complementary therapy room, private counselling rooms and a meeting/activity room, which will be suitable for activities such as exercise classes.

People will be able to access services that can help following a diagnosis and after receiving treatment, including counselling and psychological support, financial and benefits advice, hair loss support, and health and wellbeing events and courses, whether as a patient, carer or relative.

The plans for the Cancer and Wellbeing Centre will also include a relatives’ accommodation wing, which will have three en-suite family rooms. These will be for use by relatives, carers or friends who urgently need to be nearby whilst a loved one stays in hospital overnight, and can be used for up to five nights.

Ian said: “We know our patients benefit from having their loved ones nearby, and we hope the accommodation wing will help people out in their time of need. This could be used by relatives of a patient who is nearing the end of life, or a parent whose child is staying on Caroline Thorpe children’s ward overnight.

“They will be far enough away from the hospital setting for respite and support, whilst remaining close enough to return to the main site quickly if necessary.”

This new appeal follows successful campaigns to raise £250,000 to purchase equipment for the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) and over £2.2m to build the Seamoor Unit, a state-of-the-art chemotherapy unit and day treatment centre.

Roger French, chairman of the Trust, said: “The community has really come together to support our previous appeals. Over the years we have been able to provide fantastic equipment and more that goes over and above what the NHS is able to provide to support patients. We could not have achieved any of this without your hard work and donations.

“Together with your support, we can make a difference, so please get involved and support our new appeal in any way you can.”

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Well done to our Tesco Easter raffle winners! Raffle nos 0146, 0961, 0770 and 0720 won the lovely scrumptious chocolate Easter eggs kindly donated by our local Tesco stores. The raffle raised a phenomenal £1,154 for our hospital charity – amazing!!! Here are some photos showing our lovely Tesco managers donating the chocolate eggs to the fundraising team last month (no we didn’t eat any although we are chocoholics and were very tempted!). Our lovely patient Marlene Carstensen with her daugher and son in law Angie & Nigel Birch drew the first winning ticket, and our Fundraiser Julie Whitton delivering one of the hampers to a lucky winner – our Eye Clinic Nurse Helen Hancock-Martin. Well done everyone and thank you for your cracking support (I couldn’t resist the pun!)

Over and Above has had a busy year raising funds for our local hospitals.

The Special Care Baby Unit Appeal has been very successful and has almost reached its £250,000 target, enabling the hospital charity to purchase the very best equipment for our youngest patients treated at North Devon District Hospital.

In particular the Appeal monies have enabled the Unit to purchase three state of the art Draeger neonatal ventilators which cost almost £25,000 each.  These new machines will replace the old machines, which are now almost 25 years old.

Lead Neonatal Ward Manager Liz Mills said “We are delighted to receive the new ventilators – it is a dream come true.  They will enable us to provide the very best support we can give to the babies on the ward during their stay with us.  The ventilators help a baby breath by blowing oxygen-enriched air gently into the baby’s lungs.  The new ventilators have touch screens and will replace three pieces of equipment. They are also con
nected wirelessly to the Trust’s Health Patient Records meaning less administration time for our nurses so that they can spend more time with the babies and new mums on the unit.”

Over and Above Fundraiser Julie Whitton said “The people of North Devon have been amazing as always.  Their fundraising together with grant funds, has enabled the hospital charity to purchase the Draeger neonatal ventilators, neonatal incubators, phototherapy devices, hot cots with control units, developmental soothers, care aids, breast pumps on stands as well as breast pumps for portable use which can be lent to new mums.  We have purchased i-pads which means a new mum can now see her baby in the Special Baby Unit cot from her hospital bed, helping to give reassurance.  We have also purchased toys for the new baby’s brothers and sisters to play with, which helps mum and dad to spend more time with their new born baby while they are on the unit.   It is because of the overwhelming support from our fundraisers that we have been able to provide our Special Care Baby Unit with specialist neonatal medical equipment “over and above” that which the NHS can provide.    This equipment really will make a difference to help our doctors and nurses to support sick and vulnerable babies who are born early or with difficulties in North Devon.”

On behalf of the charity, we would like to thank all our fundraisers and donors for their incredible efforts.