'We couldn't have done it without you:' Northamptonshire charity gives thanks after £100,000 raised for hospitals during pandemic

The head of fundraising at Northamptonshire Health Charity has said staff at the county's hospitals have not felt forgotten about during the coronavirus pandemic after an outpouring of generosity.

More than £109,000 has been raised since lockdown was announced on March 23, with £93,000 of that money given to their Just Giving page in response to Covid-19 outbreak, which is more than double the amount of donations they saw across the same period last year.

Among those who joined in the efforts to raise thousands of pounds for poorly patients were marathon running brides, garage bike riders, charitable stair climbers, sleepover sisters and cookbook creators.

Alison McCulloch said after the charity put out an appeal for wish list items on Amazon she and her team, based near NGH, were inundated with 15,305 parcels to dish out to wards - 56 of those precious packages were tablets for Covid-19 patients to see their loved ones as visitors remain banned.

She said: "The donations have made a huge, huge difference.

"The teams were so pleased that the communities in Northamptonshire hadn't forgotten them, and realised they were still there, working a tough job and they were all working through this.

"They felt really loved, it's been overwhelming."

Aside from wish list donations, money from the Just Giving page has been ring fenced for patient and staff welfare.

So far, it has paid for garden transformations to give medics and nurses important respite, care boxes for staff on every ward, birthday packs for patients without visitors and special keepsake fingerprints of loved ones who have passed away for their families to cherish.

Plans are also in the pipeline to give the volunteers, who have been collecting poorly patients' prescriptions, a hub of their own to meet together with their own lockers where they can have a cup of tea at NGH and to revamp the domestic changing rooms for the porters with fridges and an outdoor space.

Alison added: "People have put a lot of thought into how they can support us and we need to thank everybody because it wouldn't have happened without them.

"It was an immediate reaction from everyone to help, which was lovely."

As part of the 72 birthday for the NHS on July 5, the charity is asking people to virtually raise a socially distanced cuppa, as part of their NHS Big Tea campaign, to say a big thank you to front line workers in the county. You can send in pictures of you raising a brew to the NHS for them to share on their social media pages here [email protected].

You can still donate to the Covid-19 response appeal by clicking here.