Friends of William Harvey Hospital

Friends of William Harvey Hospital The Friends of William Harvey Hospital raise funds which supply equipment and goods for use solely w

Tuesday 11 November at 11am we will, of course, observe the two minutes silence in our Friends Shop in remembrance of th...
10/11/2025

Tuesday 11 November at 11am we will, of course, observe the two minutes silence in our Friends Shop in remembrance of the sacrifices and ongoing service of our Armed Forces communities.

https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/get-involved/remembrance/two-minute-silence

Please listen out for the announcement over the hospital PA system and respect the silence.

We do collect for our local chapter of the Royal British Legion and we have poppies available and a BSL tin for your donations.

Pictured are some of the handmade poppies that our wonderful crafters make for us to sell in aid of BSL.

Lest we forget.

Good morning; good news!Probably one of the tiniest purchases with the biggest impact are these keyrings. Laura from MRI...
10/11/2025

Good morning; good news!

Probably one of the tiniest purchases with the biggest impact are these keyrings. Laura from MRI requests funding for these periodically and, at £7.73 for 35, they're the least expensive of pretty much any project we fund.

They're for children who brave the MRI machine as a little token to say 'well done'. I have reported this before and had lots of adults say how hard it is to go through the machine.

(This is a photo from the last time I delivered the keyrings, but it's such a nice one, I posted it twice!)

This is proof that the smallest donation can make children smile. Thank you for every penny!

Please consider donating to us direct:
https://www.justgiving.com/charity/fo-williamharvey

***Thank you all so much, you all helped us raise £697!!!Great timing as we have a Board Meeting in a week with a huge e...
03/11/2025

***Thank you all so much, you all helped us raise £697!!!

Great timing as we have a Board Meeting in a week with a huge equipment list of requests, not to mention the Patient Christmas Present Project to get organised.
Thank you to the bakers, organisers, helpers and of course , all those that bought a cake or two! ❤️❤️❤️

Mr Doodle

***EDIT: We raised an AMAZING: £543 from this sale!Thank you to all our customers and also to the crafters who made this...
28/10/2025

***EDIT: We raised an AMAZING: £543 from this sale!
Thank you to all our customers and also to the crafters who made this possible! ***

---
Keep warm and carry on!

We have a Knit and Crochet Sale on Friday 31 October in the Foyer, with goodies handmade by our local, amazingly talented, yarn-artists.

We have scarves, hats, gloves, blankets of all sizes. Baby clothes and sets for Christmas gifting. (Really, is there anything cuter than a baby in a handmade cardi?) We have one single teapot cover (thank you Kim D!), and quite a few hot-water-bottle covers. There may be...ahem....Christmas decorations, but there will most definitely be items you will marvel at!

Another huge thank you to all our community crafters. They donate everything for free and therefore 100% of sales at this event go back into buying equipment for our hospital.



(Please note we cannot sell handmade toys as this is in contravention of Trading Standard rules, but we do have a big range of keenly priced toys available in the shop, most of which from local supplier, Keel Toys.)

Our annual Volunteer's Tea Party took place last week, catered by the amazing local No.54 Vintage Teas, in the always-we...
25/10/2025

Our annual Volunteer's Tea Party took place last week, catered by the amazing local No.54 Vintage Teas, in the always-welcoming St Mary's in Willesborough.

We were treated to a talk by James, a Manual Handling Specialist, explaining the general rules of manual handling, and detailing some of the many items that the Friends has funded for this area recently.

Kimberley, Darren, our Treasurer Nikki and our Chair, Sue all thanked the volunteers for their amazing support over the last year, allowing us to turnover £1.5million this year. (The initial Tea Party only a couple of years ago was to celebrate our first turnover over £1million!)

It was a chance to catch up with volunteers across the days and shifts, along with Trustee volunteers and Friends Staff - many of whom do not cross paths except at this event.

If you would like to become one of our merry band of volunteers, please contact Kimberley via 01233 633 331 extension 723 8269.❤

What're they looking at?These two biomedical scientists, Amber Joyner and Shirley Moses, requested a new Olympus Microsc...
21/10/2025

What're they looking at?

These two biomedical scientists, Amber Joyner and Shirley Moses, requested a new Olympus Microscope with Camera , with attachments and monitor, costing £4,625. It's made a huge difference to Cellular Pathology since they received it from us this year and some of us went for a visit to find out what it does exactly.

It was incredibly interesting and, as a department often 'in the background', particularly cheering to hear how a single piece of equipment has impacted the department in a very positive way and, in fact, in ways even they had not expected.

Here is Shirley's letter in full:

"Dear Jill

On behalf of the Andrology team at the WHH I would like to express our gratitude for the charitable funding from the Friends of WHH which has allowed us to purchase this vital equipment.

The laboratory at WHH analyses all of the semen samples for East and West Kent and as such receives approximately 1900 samples a year. Each of these samples are examined using a microscope and the result is dependent on the interpretive skills of the andrologist. It is therefore essential that the training, regular competency and quality checks of each staff member are carried out in a timely and auditable way. The ability to stream the images seen down the microscope to a monitor means that our trainees can look at exactly the same microscope field as their trainer and also allows multiple people to view at the same time when internal quality control is carried out. This equipment has become invaluable very quickly as it is so easy to pull images up on the monitor to discuss with colleagues.

At the time of requesting charitable funding the department was trying to put a training plan in place as part of continuity planning for upcoming retirements. This equipment has already helped to speed up the training of staff and means that another Biomedical Scientist can soon be analysing patient samples. As a result we can start the training of other staff members sooner than expected. In this way we are building a more robust team and ensuring that the quality of our service is maintained at the highest level.

Additional benefits have been that we can start creating a teaching library of interesting cases and have shared some of these images with the GPs requesting the analyses, thus benefiting our service users.

Yours sincerely
Shirely Moses
Lead Biomedicat Scientist - Cytology WHH"

In my 12+ years, this was the most surprisingly interesting visit to a department at WHH. We applaud all the staff whose jobs are very much hidden from patients but without whom WHH could not run.

Where do all the patients' notes go? To a blinking big warehouse!Heather and Debbie are part of the mysteries of the NHS...
15/10/2025

Where do all the patients' notes go? To a blinking big warehouse!

Heather and Debbie are part of the mysteries of the NHS, and part of a team of hard-working staff that I'd never met until now!

The small, dedicated team, looking after tens of 1000s of notes in an Ashford warehouse asked us for a prize for their oft-forgotten staff. They don't get the freebies, raffles, or benefits of working at the hospital and asked for a small hamper for a fun seasonal activity - Find the Bauble! Kimberley of course came up trumps and made them this hamper to let them know we appreciate them too.

What a lovely bunch of people!❤

A slightly belated goodbye to our wonderful Monday Margaret!Margaret has volunteered for us for well over ten years for ...
13/10/2025

A slightly belated goodbye to our wonderful Monday Margaret!

Margaret has volunteered for us for well over ten years for at least two shifts a week. All of that time Margaret worked at the Friends Shop, she greeted us all with a cheery smile and her gentle way, which everyone needs first thing on a Monday!

Also pictured is our lovely Jayne who, along with Kimberley, thanked Margaret on behalf of our staff, Board, and volunteers for all her kind help and gave her a leaving present from us all. Happy re-retirement Margaret!

If you would like to join our band of volunteers, please contact Kimberley in the Shop: 01233 633 331 Extension 723 8269. ❤

Thank you to Yarniverse (crafting group) who made these beautiful shoulder shawls for our frail patients.These lovely m...
03/10/2025

Thank you to Yarniverse (crafting group) who made these beautiful shoulder shawls for our frail patients.

These lovely models are very hale and hearty, and are two of our wonderful volunteer Trustees; Joy and Maggie.

We are currently not taking any more blankets, or knitted/crocheted items, although once we have our Knit Sale on 31 October, we may have a bit more space.

The Friends of WHH love that our local and hospital communities support us by their crafting skill, so please keep an eye out for updated requests.❤

EDIT: Updated to say, we took an amazing £216. Thank you to everyone who supported the event, and Jim and Carol for runn...
02/10/2025

EDIT: Updated to say, we took an amazing £216. Thank you to everyone who supported the event, and Jim and Carol for running the stall. We are sooo pleased, thank you all!

Puzzle Sale - Friday 3 October - 9am until lunchtime - William Harvey Hospital Foyer.

(Normally we welcome donations too, but we have run out of space.)

Christmas Wreath Workshop! Run by our local wonderful, Linda's Florists.I know it's early doors to be posting this, but ...
29/09/2025

Christmas Wreath Workshop! Run by our local wonderful, Linda's Florists.

I know it's early doors to be posting this, but we need everyone who wants to come to reserve a space as they're selling quickly!

It's £15 to reserve a space (£45 total), payable in the Shop, call for details: 01233 633331 Ext 723 8269.

We do appreciate this isn't a 'cheap' event but all materials are supplied and we're really looking forward to a fun creative evening! A third of of cost benefits the Friends of WHH and all materials, refreshments, and a raffle.

Positive posts 'R' us!We've just received these cute photos from Padua of some items we funded recently:- Children don't...
28/09/2025

Positive posts 'R' us!

We've just received these cute photos from Padua of some items we funded recently:

- Children don't wont boring white bed linen, so we funded a the entire Padua Ward with fun and cute bedding to try and keep the smiles on their faces (£2,099).

- Padua Ward also found that the overbed tables were too weighty and not appropriate for children's beds, so we funded 22 overbed tables in total, costing £6,800. These are easier to use, manoeuvre, and clean, and also give much more appropriate space to play for children stuck in bed.

We've funded a huge amount for Padua Ward and even last week, we funded another £6,000 of equipment - we'll show you when we get photos.

And we couldn't do it without your support; buying from our Shop, supporting our fundraising, being members, or straight out donations of money. Thank you to everyone who helps us to help our local hospital.❤❤❤

JustGiving: https://www.justgiving.com/charity/fo-williamharvey

Address

William Harvey Hospital, Kennington Road
Ashford
TN240LZ

Opening Hours

Wednesday 8am - 7pm
Sunday 10am - 5pm

Telephone

+441233633331

Website

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