St George’s Hospital in Tooting is inviting the public to get involved in an adrenaline-inducing abseiling challenge to raise money for its staff, patients and projects.
The hospital, in collaboration with St George’s Hospital Charity and UK Bungee Club, will host the challenge at the Pelican Hotel where you can see the entire hospital site from the roof before abseiling down to the ground.
St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation trust serves a population of 1.3 million across South West London.
It offers a large range of complex services such as cardiothoracic medicine and surgery, neurosciences and renal transplantation.
To make this happen, 9,000 members of staff work around the clock to deliver the highest standards of patient care.
The hospital is also one of the country’s teaching hospitals, where healthcare professionals from across the region are trained.
Molly Simpson, Events and Community Fundraising Manager at St George’s Hospital Charity said: “We are so delighted that we are now in a position for our Abseil to go ahead after it was postponed due to the Covid Pandemic.
“It is even more important now that we support our hospitals and this is such a fun way for our supporters to get involved!
“We have a range of staff, ex-patients and local supporters all going to new heights and we would love more people to get involved and join Team George’s!”
Mthr Berni Excell, 53, a Priest with the Church of England and assistant curate at the Church of St Mary and St John the divine, has already raised over £700 for the hospital.
Mthr Berni said: “My connection to St George’s hospital is this is the main hospital where the majority of my parishioners go to access medical care.
“As a child my dad was a scout leader and I was the youngest of 5 children. We did a lot of outdoor and scouting activities and some abseiling with that.
“We also lived in a very tall house – my dad taught us all to abseil on the top of that!
“I haven’t been abseiling since my early teenage years though. I feel quite different, I suspect, about heights as an adult.
“And, indeed, I won’t be looking down as I go over the top!”
St George’s Hospital charity works to raise funds to improve facilities, provide equipment and enable ground-breaking research, and in the last year more than 50,000 people have benefited from the work the charity does.
This includes a range of projects they have funded such as pain distraction devices for children’s wards, bedside music every week to improve morale for long-stay inpatients and over £400k invested towards three separate medical research studies to make a positive impact on patient care.
Joining the abseiling challenge and raising money could contribute to a range of projects, including:
- Allowing the Gardening Team at the hospital, lead by Head Gardener John Greco, to continue to plant bulbs and new plants in the areas surrounding the hospital.
- Providing resources such as pencils, paper and craft kits to enable a welcome creative distraction from the stresses of treatment.
- Providing bespoke workshops with professional artists offered for staff to enhance wellbeing through learning something new to help cope with the pressures of healthcare.
- Continuing to support members of the Young Onset Dementia Support Group which offers a range of beneficial services including counselling.
No previous experience is needed for the abseil challenge and supporters will be trained on the day by UK Bungee Club.
Everyone who signs up will also be supported by the Events team to set up a fundraising page using JustGiving.
Abseil for George’s is running from 10-12 March 2022.
The registration fee is £30 and the minimum sponsorship is £150.
Click here to sign up.
