Crazy Hats breast cancer charity founder cuts turf to start work on long-promised new waiting area at Kettering General Hospital

A ceremony to launch work on a new £390,000 waiting area and garden for breast care patients at KGH has been held.

Founder of the Crazy Hats Appeal, Glennis Hooper, was joined by members of her team that will see their final act as a charity.

The waiting area is being paid for by the charity which has raised almost £3.5m for breast care locally – and £1.4m for KGH – since its 2001 launch.

After the charity closed in June 2021, its final £390,000 donation was made in November that year to KGH and now the work has finally begun.

Glennis said: “We are thrilled to update our many supporters on progress with the new waiting area project which will help to make the experience of attending hospital appointments, at what can be a worrying time, that bit easier.

“For us it is the culmination of a long journey of support for breast care patients and of support for Kettering General Hospital.

“In 2007, when the hospital’s new treatment centre first opened, we donated £100,000 to help fund many items that were required for the new breast cancer services to function and to add many of the cosmetic and finishing touches to the area.

“Years later, in 2018, we noticed that the waiting area was beginning to look ‘tired’ and so started the idea of ‘sprucing it up’, a project that Crazy Hats would fund.

“As a result we will be giving a much-needed facelift to the hospital’s waiting area, creating a calm, tranquil and peaceful area for both patients and staff. We are also landscaping an adjoining garden and modernising the reception area.”

The new lounge and waiting area will be built by infilling a small outside quadrangle area in the centre of the treatment centre.

Work is expected to be completed by May 2023, now the trust has finalised architectural and design plans and sought tenders from specialist firms.

Salam Musa is a consultant oncoplastic surgeon and one of the many KGH staff who has used the equipment supplied by Crazy Hats over the years.

He said: “The Crazy Hats Appeal has made an enormous contribution to breast care facilities at Kettering General Hospital by donating a wide variety of equipment and helping us to make our treatment centre more welcoming.

“This final donation will help us to further improve care for our breast cancer patients – and outside of those clinics for other patients as well – by providing the treatment centre with a much-improved waiting area, surrounded by a small-landscaped garden.”

The current £390,000 donation itself is being administrated by KGH and the Northamptonshire Health Charity – a body which oversees donations to hospitals and health organisations in Northamptonshire – as a protected donation just for spending on the project.

KGH’s chief executive, Deborah Needham, said: “Glennis’s 20-year fundraising campaign has ended where it began, supporting her local hospital.

“We are proud and delighted to see work about to start on this significant improvement to the care environment for our patients.

“I want to thank every local individual, group, and business, that has supported Crazy Hats and hence supported our hospital.”

The charity is also thanking Bosworth’s Garden Centre for their commitment in helping with the garden area and to Stepnell, of Rugby, the company which will carry out all the renovations and the build itself.

Glennis said: “I would like to thank our ex-trustees, members, friends, supporters of Crazy Hats and the many, many, individuals and companies who have been so loyal and generous. Also Kettering General Hospital’s chief executive, Debbie Needham, and her team, for their time and commitment to this unique project.

“I would also like to reiterate my personal and heartfelt thanks to the remarkable Crazy Hats team who stood behind me to make everything happen. It certainly was an incredible 20 years!”

Glennis Hooper

Glennis Hooper was diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery at KGH in the summer of 2001 with follow-up treatment at Northampton General Hospital and Leicester Royal Infirmary. She launched the Crazy Hats Appeal later that year.

Over the years the charity’s fundraising has included 17 sponsored walks at Wicksteed Park and hundreds of other smaller events and kind donations by supportive local groups, businesses, and individuals.

The charity’s contribution to Kettering General Hospital’s breast service – which has received £1.4 million over 20 years – has been immense.

Crazy Hats donations to Kettering General Hospital

In 2001 the appeal bought the hospital its first Faxitron machine – a special x-ray machine used to x-ray tissue samples to aid accurate diagnosis – followed by a second one in 2011 and a third in 2013.

In 2007 it supported the opening of the trust’s treatment centre by donating £100,000 to fund a cafe, high quality decoration in its breast care rooms and artwork.

It has bought more than £90,000 worth of gamma probes – equipment used to do biopsies to check if cancer has spread – two in 2006 and three in 2016.

In 2009 it donated £65,500 to buy a vacuum assisted biopsy unit, reducing the need for women to travel to other hospitals in Nottingham or London, or possibly require more invasive open biopsy surgery.

In 2010 it donated £14,000 worth of state-of-the-art liposuction and fat transfer equipment to support reconstructive surgery.

It has also donated a long list of other specialist equipment such as ultrasound scanners, headlights for surgeons, a microscope and lots of other improvements for patients such as TVs, microwaves, and wheelchairs.