Celebrating 15 Years
of Your Support

In 2009, Oxford Road Campus opened a suite of new hospital spaces to the general public of Manchester. The campus gave new homes to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, Saint Mary’s Hospital and Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, as well as adding an extension on to the existing Manchester Royal Infirmary building.

Our Charity, then known as The New Children’s Hospital Appeal, raised over £20millon for Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, in order for it to launch with additional state-of-the-art facilities and equipment for both patients and their families.

Research plays an important role within our hospitals and helps us to improve the lives of our patients through better diagnosis, treatment and improved care. Our clinicians and researchers test theories and treatment possibilities to help with the care of tomorrow. In 2009, we awarded funding to seven Research for Patient Benefit projects, totalling £113,000.

These projects covered broad areas across the entire trust, from programmes to improve communication with visually impaired patients to studies into bone healing in children

In the world of medicine, life-changing advances happen every year, and access to the state-of-the-art equipment and technology saves lives and improves outcomes. In 2009, we supported the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Saint Mary’s Hospital by providing a variety of cutting-edge equipment to help them provide the best possible care for very sick babies. The support also included providing a heart monitoring machine, costing £16,000. We continue to support NICU and have recently purchased the latest Echocardiography machine that will provide better images and support the diagnosis of complex congenital heart disease in neonates.

Burn injuries can require years of painful treatments and aftercare and children can face many problems adapting to their scars, rebuilding their self-confidence and reintegrating into a society that isn’t always kind to people who look different. Manchester Burns Camp provides a space to help burn-injured young people to increase their self-esteem and support their rehabilitation.

MFT Charity has been a regular supporter of Manchester Burns Camp, committing over £350,000 over the years to ensure that children and young people can attend at no cost to them. Former patient and burns camp participant Amy, told us that Burns Camp inspired her to live her life.

Our Saint Mary’s Hospital Rainbow Room was refurbished and transformed in 2011 into a less clinical and more homely space for families to be together after the delivery of a baby that is stillborn or has died during or just after labour.

For Cath and Ben, the Rainbow Room bereavement suite was a huge comfort. Cath remembers: “Having the room meant we could make memories as a family which we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. The hospital provided us with a camera so we could take pictures, we didn’t realise at the time how important it would be to have these pictures and make the small memories we could with Arlo. The cool cot meant we could spend as much time as we needed with Arlo too.”

Being in hospital can be a scary and tough time for young people and their families, but entertainers like the Giggle Doctors can help to instil a bit of normalcy back into the experience, through fun and laughter. In 2012, thanks to your support, we were able to fund weekly visits from two Giggle Doctors to patients in Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

Specially trained, their clowning skills are tailored to each patient’s needs and they wait to be invited by the child before getting involved. They help to provide distraction, magic and encourage participation from patients, as well as their families!

Visiting hospital and meeting doctors and nurses in an unfamiliar and clinical environment can be an extremely daunting experience for a child. That’s why we introduced therapeutic and interactive themed artwork throughout the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital radiology department.

CT scans in particular can be very frightening for a child, laying still in a confined environment for a long time while the scan takes place. The new artwork made these rooms more child-friendly, allowing patients to some distraction. A space theme was chosen for the artwork, running from the reception all the way through to the examination rooms.

We were delighted to help our Manchester Royal Eye Hospital celebrate 200 years of dedicated specialist care in 2014. To mark two centuries of world-class, pioneering work, we launched the Bicentenary Appeal. The appeal aimed to raise £200,000 – £1,000 for every year of the hospital’s heritage – to help support the paediatric ophthalmic unit at the hospital and their mission to be a leading and innovative centre for children’s eye care.

The Manchester Diabetes Centre, part of Manchester Royal Infirmary, was one of the first centres in the UK and is internationally recognised for its high-quality clinical care and cutting-edge and often world-renowned research. The Manchester Diabetes Centre cares for a large population of diabetes patients from across the North West and takes referrals from as far afield as Northern Ireland and Scotland.

In 2015, we launched an appeal to create a new space for the Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism Services to support diabetes patients across the North West.

Play services inspire fun, curiosity and interaction for all young patients, as well as providing vital support for young patients in difficult moments. Over the years, we have been able to support the provision of these essential services for young patients across our family of hospitals.

Our Play Team works with inpatients on the wards, bringing tailored play to bedsides with things like Xbox gaming carts and with referrals – children who are due to come into hospital and might have some anxiety around it.

We supported Trafford General Hospital with £23,000 of funding to support their team of expert Therapeutic Play Coordinators.

With over 850,000 people in the UK suffering from dementia, it is essential that our hospitals support our community to live happy and healthy lives with the condition. Our team of Therapeutic Activity Coordinators provide a range of hands-on support for our dementia patients, from assisting with physical and nutritional requirements to creating opportunities for our patients to be creative.

Arts and crafts provide a fun way for patients to stimulate the brain and stir memories, as well as providing moments of relaxation. We are proud to have funded crafting materials to assist the Therapeutic Play Coordinators create valuable moments for our dementia patients.

We raised over £300,000 to purchase specialist beds for Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). These beds are designed specifically for children with the most critical care needs who cannot leave their beds due to the severity of their condition, or due to the presence of life sustaining medical lines.

These children can’t take part in the regular therapy and play that other patients can, and being confined to their beds can leave them at a significantly higher risk of problems such as pressure ulcers and muscle mass deterioration.

Thanks to charitable support, the PICU team were able to purchase 31 beds to support their patients.

Sian Carline, Paediatric High Dependency Unit Matron commented: “The beds aren’t just helping to reduce physical problems such as pressure ulcers they are supporting the psychological aspects of being in hospital too. Through enabling comfortable positioning such as sitting up, patients can interact with their families and take part in activities supporting their wellbeing and improving their hospital experience.”

With an outpouring of support for our family of hospitals across MFT and the NHS, our attention focused on caring for NHS staff as they cared for others during the Covid-19 pandemic.  We supported staff wellbeing at a critical time – providing over 25,000 wellbeing packs containing snacks, drinks and toiletries as well as extra treats to keep staff going.

We were delighted to continue to support staff wellbeing through mental health initiatives. We trained an additional 64 mental health first aiders (MHFAs) to support employees experiencing a mental health issue or emotional distress. MHFAs are invaluable in providing early intervention help for someone who may be developing a mental health issue.

We also supported Create, Connect, Unwind a project tackling stigma around mental heatlh and supporting the wellbeing of staff.  Taster sessions were held using a variety of forms including creative writing, music, relaxation and mindfulness. The learnings from these sessions helped further develop the broader programme and campaign. In total 21 virutual creative sessions were delivered and 6 lots of 6 wee mindfuless sessions.

In May 2021, we were delighted to see the Helipad at our Oxford Road Campus open to patients. The Helipad means patients can be transferred to Emergency Departments at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and Manchester Royal Infirmary quickly and safely. Our Charity supporters helped enabled this project after raising a phenomenal £3.9million towards the helipad in just 12 months through the Time Saves Lives Appeal.

The Creativity, Resilience, Enablement and Wellbeing (CREW) project, funded by our charity, takes place at Galaxy House, an inpatient mental health unit at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. Over seven weeks and using creative expression through music, the CREW project provides a platform for healing, building self-confidence and self-esteem and developing core life skills like communication for 10 to 16 year olds at the unit.

Galaxy House cares for children with severe eating disorders, Pervasive Arousal Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS), severe psychosomatic conditions and neurodevelopmental difficulties and mental health problems that are severe enough to require inpatient treatment. Through the CREW project, these young people are given the opportunity to develop and showcase their creative selves, helping to re-establish their identity.

We supported the creation of a custom-built creative space with a new arts and wellbeing centre to support staff wellbeing.

The centre, located in the Peter Mount Building at MFT’s Oxford Road campus, was a global first and was made possible thanks to a grant from Barclays. The money was part of a £100million Community Aid Package set up by Barclays to support charities that help people and communities most impacted by Covid-19.

Staff, including health professionals, students and trainees, working at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) have access the multi-purpose creative space to undertake a variety of Lime Arts activities such as print screening, clay modelling and many more. The centre enables staff to gain direct experience of the arts and complements the excellent clinical care given to patients by our NHS teams.

We made a difference to patients being cared for by the dermatology service at Withington Hospital.

A UVB phototherapy cabinet has been providing treatment which reduces inflammation and boosts vitamin D for patients with skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, vitiligo and polymorphous light eruption (PLE).  Phototherapy helps to get skin conditions under control and provide a better quality of life. It helps patients to feel more comfortable and less self-conscious, contributing to patients living life with more freedom.

The machine also helped to cut down the time patients spend in the cabinet.  Previously, patients receiving the top dosage would be in the cabinet for nearly eight minutes, with the new cabinet this was reduced by over half with patients receiving their treatment in less than four minutes.

Manchester Royal Eye Hospital became the first in the UK to use a new eye scanner in a patient setting. The Widefield OCT A machine from Canon was purchased through charitable funds and for many patients, means a more immediate and non-invasive scan.

Previously, in order to detect diseases of the retina (the biggest cause of blindness), patients had to undergo a procedure called a fluorescein angiography (FFA) which required dye to be injected into the vein for the scan. The OCT A equipment means a quicker, more comfortable experience for patients.

Patient, John Breheny, has type 2 diabetes and started to lose his sight in 2022. He said: “If you are nervous or scared about needles then this equipment is a Godsend.”

We supported the Saint Mary’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) which moved into its new, purpose-built facility in March 2024. Fundraising donations gave the SARC the means to respond to emerging client and staff needs, notably with the Group Therapy Room and Staff Terrace.

The Group Therapy Room has enabled SARC to improve their support for both parents of abused children and adult clients, providing a comfortable, warm and relaxing environment for counselling. The purchase of comfortable furniture, as well as lamps, cushions and weighted blankets has ensured clients are as comfortable as possible to explore their feelings after experiencing assault.

The Staff Terrace has created a pleasant outdoor terrace for staff to use as a private area to rest, reflect and recharge also. The area, which has been kitted out with furnishings, gives staff access to a calming environment where they can take a break from very stressful and emotionally challenging shifts.