LET’S HELP LIFT NURSES’ SPIRITS
Separated from his girlfriend working on Covid front line, Oakley raises funds to boost morale
NURSES who work on the Covid-19 front line are facing increasing pressure to cope with the influx of patients, and morale can be hard to maintain.
Kind-hearted Oakley Crosswell, below, whose girlfriend is a nurse, is all too aware of the gruelling efforts put in by medical staff.
Now Oakley – who is having to live apart from his partner Alice Porter, pictured in the team, right – is leading the charge to raise money for nurses at Queen Alexandra Hospital.
The JustGiving page has broken its original target of £500 and is on course for a new target of £2,500 which will go towards moraleboosting treats for NHS workers.
GENEROUS supporters of nurses prepared to ‘sacrifice everything’ on the frontline of Covid-19 are on course to raise thousands of pounds.
Money is being raised for nurses at Queen Alexandra Hospital, in an effort co-ordinated by Oakley Crosswell, who knows only too well about the effort that medical staff are putting in, as his partner of 10 years Alice Porter is a nurse.
The JustGiving page has already broken its original target of £500 and now aims to reach £2,500 with nearly £1,800 raised already.
Money raised will go towards increasing nurse morale by organising an event or day out for the NHS workers, as soon as it is safe to do so.
Oakley, 23, said: ‘I wanted to start this fundraiser to really highlight on a local level, what a community can do for nurses on a high care ward.’
Mr Crosswell, who works as a specialist mentor in psychology and mental health, has seen first hand the strength and determination it takes to work on the frontline during a pandemic.
He said: ‘My fiancee works as a nurse on the respiratory high care ward unit, which is treating mainly Covid-19 patients at the moment.
‘I haven't been able to see her for quite a few months now.’
‘Morale is so low on the high care ward, and so many of them are my close friends.
‘At the moment they are just shells of their original selves, in terms that their whole life is treating critically ill patients.’
Alice, who is living away from Oakley, has seen the fundraiser and said: ‘It’s really lovely to see that local people are coming together to help raise our spirits.
‘Although we are in tough times we continue to care and support every patient that comes through these doors.
‘Thank you so much to everyone that has donated and help raise awareness.’
As Covid numbers in Portsmouth continue to rise, Queen Alexandra staff are under pressure.
They were caring for around 503 patients with the virus, as of January 12.
Oakley said he has concern over the effects long Covid cases could have on the hospital.He said: ‘It is important to understand that it's not just deaths we’re trying to avoid.
‘It's the overall pressure on, one, the NHS, and two, saving people from having to go through these experiences.’
For those undertaking Dry January – a task perhaps more tricky than in previous years, especially so if one has school-age children – well done, you’re more than halfway there. For the rest of us though, slogging through this monotonous but sadly necessary lockdown, the congratulations may be the same but the time frame is different. We may be about a third of the way through, but as the government’s legislation lasts until March 31, nobody can be that certain that the initial date mooted for lifting the restrictions, in mid-February, may not be pushed back.
The difference between this lockdown and that imposed last March has been striking, if understandable. It turns out that good weather, more daylight and novelty help a lot. Yes, there are still lovely acts of kindness going on all around us – we have reported recently on volunteers refurbishing laptops and tablets so children can continue learning from home, as one example – but it is clear that the nation is doggedly just ‘getting through’.
And included in that is the NHS, which is said from several sources, locally and nationally, to be under increasing pressure. There have been ‘stay at home’ pleas from QA and from a consortium of health leaders in recent days; the hospital is treating more Covid patients than it was at the April peak and we pray that the numbers drop soon, for everyone’s sake.
And we still remember the efforts of the doctors and nurses on Covid wards. Often shorterstaffed than they would like, as colleagues are forced into isolation, it is no wonder morale can droop. Today we report the efforts of Oakley Crosswell, who is fundraising for medical staff at QA. As his partner
Alice is a Covid nurse he knows the pressure staff are under. Today we hail Oakley’s efforts, but more than that we repeat our gratitude to all at QA. We’re still thinking of you, through these long January days.