Welcome Millie!

30th April 2021

We have welcomed a new Director to Manchester Foundation Trust Charity, Millie Stacey, who comes to us from another leading national health-related charity. Here, in her first blog, she introduces herself and tells us a little bit about some of our wonderful hospitals first hand…

My son Theodore was born at Saint Mary’s Hospital. We had to stay for a week and then were admitted to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital when he was 2 weeks old to be treated for an infection. As most of you reading this will know all too well, there is no feeling quite like being in hospital with a poorly loved one, and I will never ever forget not only the expertise of the staff that surrounded us, but also the kindness and care that they showed my family.

On the night we were admitted to hospital, we called 999 and were blue lighted in at about 4am. The paramedics acted quickly and it was overwhelming, but I felt that we were in safe hands. In A&E, the doctors and nurses treated my son while keeping his exhausted parents informed at every stage – and brought us tea and biscuits! We stayed in two different wards during our stay (using many facilities that the Charity has enabled) and then had a lot of support when we were back home from midwives and health visitors and other community services. Every single person we interacted with made us feel completely cared for in every possible way.

When we left hospital for the second time I declared to my husband “I would love to work there one day”. Granted, I was quite sleep deprived at the time, but the experience clearly made a mark and I am now a month into my new role as Director of Charities for the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust hospitals!

In my first month I’ve learnt so much about the work happening across our hospitals – from world firsts to lives saved against the odds; to ground-breaking research; to the remarkable efforts and impact of our team throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. I am more convinced than ever that the support we can give through our Charity is money SO well spent.

It is such an honour to have taken up this role, and I am so excited to work with our amazing donors and fundraisers to make more incredible things happen. Theodore is now a 15 month old bundle of joy, doing his own fundraising for Manchester Foundation Trust Charity – because we know the difference it makes, and because we are so proud to support an organisation that is both clinically expert and also incredibly kind and caring.

I look forward to updating you regularly on all the work we do and hopefully meeting some of you very soon at one of our events.