NHS Big Tea 2023
The NHS has delivered exceptional care to millions of people for three-quarters of a century. A momentous milestone that we have been celebrating as a team, and in various ways over the last few days. From a 100ft charity abseil last Saturday, to training and preparing for the NHS parkrun this weekend. Some of the team are also taking on the junior parkrun with family members too!
As a busy team covering the length and breadth of the UK, we also took some time out last week to celebrate the NHS. During our team day, we hosted a tea party – taking some time to catch up with each other, celebrate the work of the NHS and, of course, eat cake!
75 years of the National Health Service
- Photography competition – for volunteers
- School talks – for volunteers, teachers and schools
- Support the NHS
- Events and news – locally
Treating over a million people a day in England, the NHS touches all of our lives. When it was founded in 1948, the NHS was the first universal health system to be available to all, free at the point of delivery.
Since 1948, the NHS has always evolved and adapted to meet the needs of each successive generation. From Britain’s first kidney transplant in 1960, to Europe’s first liver transplant in 1968.
From the world’s first CT scan on a patient in 1971, revolutionising the way doctors examine the body, to the world’s first test-tube baby born in 1978.
Large-scale vaccination programmes protected children from whooping cough, measles and tuberculosis, and in 1999 the meningitis C vaccine was offered nationally in a world first.
The NHS has delivered huge medical advances, including the world’s first liver, heart and lung transplant in 1987, pioneering new treatments, such as bionic eyes and, in more recent times, the world’s first rapid whole genome sequencing service for seriously ill babies and children. Find out more.
The Big Abseil
On Saturday 2nd July Health Spaces bravely took on the ‘The Big Abseil’ at Leicester Royal Infirmary to help to raise funds for the redevelopment of the hospital’s chemotherapy suite, creating additional health space for six new chairs and facilitating 4,000 more treatments each year.
Over £1000 was raised by the team – and with donations still coming in, the team is set to exceed their fundraising target quite significantly! There’s still time to donate here.
‘Parkrun for the NHS’
This weekend (8 & 9 July) we are taking to our local parks to join the #NHS75parkrun events locally.
Backed by the tennis star Sir Andy Murray, people across the UK are invited to ‘parkrun for the NHS’ at parkrun events all over the UK.
Anyone can get involved with people invited to walk, jog or run 5K at their local parkrun to celebrate this major milestone in the NHS’s history and acknowledge all the staff and volunteers, past and present, who have made the NHS what it is. Find out more and get involved.
