Charity’s second gift from mystery donor now puts sum at £750,000

AN anonymous benefactor has donated £750,000 to support patients and health service staff in Fife during the pandemic.

The Fife Health Charity, the new name for the Fife Health Board Endowment Fund, revealed it had received a second donation of £250,000 from the donor this week.

This follows a gift of £500,000 from the same source, with the donor saying they had been so impressed with how the first contribution was used they wanted to top it up.

Tricia Marwick, the charity’s chairwoman, said it was “a quite extraordinary act of kindness”, adding that staff had been “genuinely blown away by the generosity shown yet again”.

She said: “The earlier donation of £500,000 has funded a wide range of initiatives and has been invaluable in helping us provide some of the home comforts that have made patients’ stays in hospital more bearable while visiting restrictions have been in place.”

The first £500,000 contribution helped to fund a range of initiatives, including the purchase of more than 100 tablet computers that have let patients make video calls to loved ones.

Some of the money also went towards the provision of an outdoor gym at Lynebank Hospital in Dunfermline.

Elsewhere, the charity has used the funds to pay for toiletries, magazines, radios and televisions for ward areas.

It has also provided portable translation devices for patients who are not fluent in English.

A further £100,000 from the original donation went towards the £200,000 cost of a permanent wellbeing hub for healthcare staff at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.

In addition, £10,000 has been allocated to Maggie’s Centre, Kirkcaldy, and £5,000 has gone to Blood Bikes Scotland, to acknowledge the organisation’s invaluable support to NHS Fife during the early stages of the pandemic.

The Fife Health Charity operates independently to Fife Health Board and does not pay for core health services.

Last year, it awarded more than £1 million to help its work in supporting local initiatives.

Mrs Marwick said the latest gift from the mystery donor would be put to good use.

“On behalf of the board of trustees, I wanted to offer our most sincere thank you for the donation,” she said.

“We will ensure that the gift is used wisely.”