24 January 2020

To mark 200 years since Florence Nightingale’s birth, the World Health Organisation has announced the first ever global Year of the Nurse and Midwife.

Every month, we’ll hear from nurses and midwives from across University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust. You’ll learn about their working lives, celebrate in their successes and hear about the ways in which staff go above and beyond their professional duties to support excellent patient care in Bristol city centre hospitals with fundraising and volunteering.

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My name is Andrea and I’m a Nursing Assistant at the BRI. I’ve working all over the trust for almost 20 years. I spent five years working at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children and my role included being the disability link nurse.

My first involvement with the charity as a fundraiser came while working in the children’s hospital outpatient department. Myself, fellow nurse Emily and my daughter set out to raise £1,000 to buy sensory toys for our patients by doing an Above & Beyond skydive. To reach our fundraising target we began holding bake sales on the ward and in the children’s hospital reception area. The fundraising was also great for team-building on the ward as our workmates contacted lots of local businesses to help us source prizes for a raffle.

In the end, we raised over £4,000! We were absolutely blown away by everyone’s generosity but have a feeling that they were so keen to help because they wanted see us throw ourselves out of a plane!

When Above & Beyond asked if I’d like to become a Charity Champion I didn’t even have to think about it: the answer was yes! There is so much that the charity does to help the Trust, staff and, most importantly, the patients; I was more than happy to help in any way that I can. It’s good to know that money raised by fundraising and donations goes back to the Trust, whether it’s providing the hospital shuttle bus service so patients can get to and from their appointments for free, providing artwork so that the rooms are less clinical and more relaxing, or helping to fund sensory toys for children – after all, this was the start of it all for me – I look forward to raising even more money in 2020 and beyond.

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If you work at UH Bristol, you can become a Charity Champion. We'd love to work with you!