The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
A year of generosity
What a difference a year makes. The ARCHIE Foundation Tayside is edging nearer to its £2 million target, but there’s still a lot we can all do to make dreams become a reality. By Caroline Lindsay
It’s a year today since The ARCHIE Foundation launched its campaign to raise £2 million for enhancements to Tayside Children’s Hospital. Since then, people across Courier Country and staff at NHS Tayside have worked their socks off to gather vital funds for the charity.
You’ve baked and cooked, done sponsored walks, abseiled down buildings, held concerts, grown beards and scaled mountains.
David Cunningham, chief executive of The ARCHIE Foundation, is amazed by what has been achieved thanks to the generosity of folk across Tayside.
“This has been the first year of our three-year appeal to raise £2m towards a new twin theatre paediatric operating suite for Tayside Children’s Hospital and it has been a first for us in a number of different ways,” he says.
“Normally, with a new appeal we would have a period of speaking to major organisations such as trusts and corporate donators before launching to the public with some substantial pledges or donations already in place before launch.
“In Tayside, we went public from day one and the people of Tayside, Angus and North Fife have amazed us.
“On the first morning of our new office on level 7 at Ninewells – the Monday following the launch in The Courier – there were 53 envelopes waiting for us in the mail, containing donations from £5 to £500!
“We have never experienced that before and it told us what the year since has proved – that the people of Tayside care deeply about the health of their children and will help us to improve the facilities for those who are sick,” he continues.
Wonderful gestures
Throughout the year, appeal organisers have been bowled over by the generosity of supporters, from young children asking for donations instead of birthday presents to two Kirriemuir brothers who lived at the top of Ben Nevis for a week, all to raise money for ARCHIE.
An outstanding example was set by the staff of NHS Tayside in the form of ARCHIE’s Mountain Challenge – an epic relay which involved volunteers scaling all 130 Scottish mountains over 1km in height over the course of two weeks.
The enterprise was conceived, planned and organised by a team of medical staff headed up by consultant anaesthetist Paul Fettes.
Their feat was so outstanding that it recently featured on The Adventure Show on BBC2, and a gala dinner raised more than £20,000 towards the appeal .
David adds: “In between there have been many more events, small and large and more and more businesses lending their support.
“Organisations as diverse as The Courier, Thorntons Solicitors, the Tayside and Angus Chamber of Commerce, the John Clark Motor Group and Glendoick Garden Centre were early supporters and it grows every month.
“We have also been making approaches and presentations to trusts and organisations who we know are interested in funding projects like our new paediatric operating theatres.
“These processes all take time and we are anticipating having some exciting news on that front in the coming year.”
Amazing year
He said 2016 was shaping up to be an amazing year for the ARCHIE Foundation on Tayside – and there are still big plans to ensure 2015 goes out with a bang.
“Working closely with DC Thomson, there will be a launch in November of a very exciting project which has the potential to raise a lot of money for Tayside Children’s Hospital whilst also raising the profile of the city of Dundee nationally and internationally – watch this space!” he says.
In the meantime, there are lots of ways for the public to become involved, not least through the latest phase of the Beards for Bairns campaign.
“This is a major fundraiser for us which is very easy to participate in and is great fun,” says David.
“All we ask every father, son, uncle, brother and grandad is to not shave from Christmas Day to Burns Night on January 25 and to give or raise at least £10 for the appeal.
“There are endless ways in which people can help to make this one of our most successful appeals ever – our favourite saying is ‘Whatever you do – do something.’”
Reflecting on the past year, consultant anaesthetist Dr Grant Rodney says: “The single theatre opened 10 years ago and we knew right away we could only accommodate 50% of children there and always recognised we would need two operating theatres, plus accompanying beds, staff and play specialists.
“Tayside Children’s Hospital has always been the subject of generous donations by patients’ families and endowment funds.
Exciting
“It’s so exciting to have The ARCHIE Foundation on board to bring a real focus on what we’re hoping to achieve – to build a much stronger paediatric unit and to bring all the services together to benefit children across Tayside and their families.”
While the core funding is coming from the NHS, he said funds raised by ARCHIE would provide “the icing on the cake” by making a difference to the hospital environment, the play areas and transforming plain white walls with virtual reality images, for children of all ages from babies to teens, to reflect their different emotional needs.
“Over the next year we’ll be continuing to fundraise with staff and the Tayside community and working with Emma, Hannah and the rest of the ARCHIE Tayside team,” Grant adds.
“We hope we’ll soon be able to reveal the first basic model to give the public a rough idea of what the paediatric operating suite will look like and where people’s money is going.”
clindsay@thecourier.co.uk