Raising Money for Nottingham’s Hospitals – Hike For Your Hospitals

*I am working with Nottingham Hospital’s Charity but I wasn’t paid for this post.

Hike For Your Hospitals is Nottingham’s biggest sponsored walk to raise money for Nottingham’s wonderful NHS hospitals – Queen’s Medical Centre, City Hospital, Ropewalk House and Nottingham’s Children’s Hospital.

You can choose your own distance, time and place and whether you want to do, say, one long hike, or do a certain number of steps every day for a month!

Ava and I are going to be walking 500,000 steps (or around 216 miles!) over 6 weeks starting from the beginning of July, and we are very excited to be involved and hopefully raise lots of money for Nottingham’s hospitals.

To say these hospitals and the amazing staff that work there are special to me would be an understatement. As I’ve talked about many times, I have had a lot of treatment at both City Hospital and QMC and the staff have always been amazing.

I’ve had many operations, countless consultant appointments, blood tests, and scans at Nottingham’s City Hospital in particular and so we have chosen to raise money for the Gynae Oncology department there.

I’ve had approximately a million appointments there over the years – and have another in a few months which may actually be my last one!! The nurses are caring, supportive and wonderful – one in particular who I am always so happy to see, who knows my history and fertility struggles and was so happy for us when I got pregnant and had our daughter. After my last major surgery in 2019, she did the ward rounds with my consultant and it really helped to see their faces and talk to them when I was feeling so awful.

Another nurse, in particular, has always been amazing to me too – she remembers me each time and really helped to put me at ease before my operation when I was so scared.

They’re both incredible and it’s always nice to see them again and have their support – their kindness and smiles have meant the world to me over the years.

Just in case they happen to read this – Julie G and Catherine I’m talking about you! ♥ 

I have had two main consultants over the years. The brilliant Mr Abu has been my main man (!) and then I have also seen Mr Gajjar at times, and they are both incredible consultants and I am so grateful to them. Before them, the wonderful Mr Johnson was my consultant until he retired and I loved him and was sad for him to leave. But I’ve been so lucky with my consultants since.

I have come to know and love Mr Abu – he did my surgery two years ago and checked on me afterwards – part of his job, I know, but it didn’t feel like that and he remembers me and asks about my life, not just my health, and over the years I have really come to trust him and his advice and him wanting to do what is best for me.

This has turned into a gushing ramble about the amazing staff in the Gynae Oncology department at City Hospital, but they truly have been so important to me, and they are why I have chosen to raise money for that area of Nottingham’s hospitals.

We also had fertility treatment with Nurture Fertility at Nottingham’s QMC before it moved off campus, and all of the staff there were absolutely brilliant too. Mr H, the main guy at Nurture did one of my operations as well as our IVF and I am eternally grateful to all of them there, too.

My life would likely be extremely different if it wasn’t for all of these amazing NHS staff.

Hike For Your Hospitals

Ava and I are going to be taking part in #HikeForYourHospitals – a sponsored walk over the summer and you can join in too with any type of walk you like! You can also fundraise for any of Nottingham’s hospitals and whichever area you like – be it neonatal, cardiology, or any particular ward or department.

We’re excited to be starting our Hike For Your Hospitals and we would love it if you would join us and do your own Hike for Your Hospitals and raise some money for Nottingham’s hospitals – however much you raise will make a real difference to patient care in Nottingham’s NHS hospitals, and you can choose whatever type of walk you fancy – be it a one-off hike, shorter distances every day for a month, or whatever you like. You can sign up for free at https://www.nottinghamhospitalscharity.org.uk/louise.

Nottingham Hospitals Charity is an NHS charity that raises money to support Nottingham’s hospitals: QMC, City Hospital, Ropewalk House and Nottingham Children’s Hospital. I am so, so happy, excited and proud to be working with them and supporting their incredible work.

Ava and I would be so grateful if you would like to sponsor us. You can find our JustGiving page here: Our JustGiving Page.

Thanks so much xxx

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