Children’s hospital and Wesleyan deserve to be celebrated

inextricably linked and deserve highlighting really stood out to me – namely the news on Tuesday morning that Birmingham Children’s Hospital (BCH) had become the first such hospital in the country to be rated ‘outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission, the health watchdog.

And then, later that same day, the hospital opened Magnolia House at its Steelhouse Lane site, thanks to the amazing commitment and generosity of another Birmingham Institution, Wesleyan.

Magnolia House is a wonderful new facility that has been built in the heart of the rambling BCH site to offer a tranquil space where staff, parents and patients can go for palliative and bereavement conversations and care.

BCH does a brilliant job in saving and transforming so many young lives, but sometimes the news that staff need to deliver will be bad. And Magnolia House provides an environment where the breaking of such unimaginable news is somewhat less terrible and more palatable.

It’s the sort of facility that should exist. Although, but for the involvement of Wesleyan, it wouldn’t currently at BCH.

Wesleyan has been headquartered in Birmingham since its foundation in 1841. Focused on providing tailored financial advice and products to select professional groups, such as hospital doctors and GPs, dentists, teachers and lawyers, it is a name, and HQ, that looms large over the city. It also understands its civic role and takes it extremely seriously, even if the organisation itself is very humble and unassuming.

Wesleyan first got involved with supporting BCH in 2013, when, through a variety of staff fundraising efforts, it raised £250,000 to help redevelop a cancer unit at the hospital.

On its own that would be impressive enough. But not for Wesleyan who, driven by their CEO Craig Errington, and COO Liz McKenzie, committed to raise £750,000 in two years in order to allow planning and construction on Magnolia House to start.

Quite simply, without Wesleyan’s involvement, this amazing facility that gives families the basic dignity they deserve in impossibly tough times would not have been built.

The pledge to raise that amount of money was quite something, and the way the Wesleyan team set about it was equally impressive.

Particular note must be given to The Unstoppable Maggie McGee, an illustrated children’s book that was the idea of Wesleyan’s CR officer Jess Wilkes-Reading and saw the firm covering all associated costs so that every penny of the £6 cover price went towards BCH. If you haven’t got a copy yet then I implore you to check it out and do so.

Birmingham is an extremely busy and bustling city, with so much going on every day of the week. Sometimes, in and among the daily churn of news, stories about our city stand out.

For me, last week was a great example of this with two of our oldest and most venerable institutions (alongside the Chamber of course…) – Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Wesleyan – highlighting the very best of the city.

Let’s make sure we always take time to celebrate such wonderful efforts and the leadership and teamwork behind them. Paul Faulkner is chief executive

of Greater Birmingham