Rochdale nurses help raise thousands for their patients

Two NHS children’s nurses from Rochdale are taking part in a 100km challenge to raise thousands of pounds for their young patients.

Ellen Kershaw and Nicole Almond will be joined by fellow paediatric nurses from Ward 85 at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, after setting themselves a target of running 100km each throughout November to help fund vital entertainment equipment for their teenage patients. Nicole is running the challenge while Ellen decided to walk her 100km.

The challenge originally began as a fitness goal for one member of staff, Sister Gabrielle Chan. Before long, other staff members decided to join her and the team saw it as a great opportunity to do something for the young patients on their ward too.

Ellen said: "I wanted to get more active and challenge myself during these difficult times. The drive of the challenge for me is improving patient experience which is so important especially in these unprecedented times.

"It's also been great to rediscover my local area and all the new routes I can take around Watergrove Reservoir.

"The encouragement from the team, family and friends has been inspirational."

Nicole added: "I started running the 100km challenge to keep myself busy during lockdown and to keep fit; I love a challenge as I’m very competitive. It makes it all better knowing the money raised is going to such a fantastic cause. Everyone is going so well and it’s great for us all to be doing it together as a team. We’re driving each other to go further and carry on to the finish line."

The sponsored challenge, which has already seen more than £5,600 donated, will raise money for Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity. All the funds raised will be spent on games consoles and entertainment systems for the ward’s adolescent patients. They also hope to fund personal film projectors, so that patients can enjoy their favourite movies more comfortably than, for example, on a handheld device.

Gabrielle explained: “We have lots of equipment and toys to entertain babies and younger children but some of our teenage patients are on the ward for weeks at a time and it can get very boring for them.

“We do have a TeenZone for teenagers at the hospital, but sadly we can’t take patients down there at the moment due to infection control risks. Patients have to remain socially distanced which often means they are isolated in their own rooms throughout their admission.

“I sometimes go into a patient’s room to check on them and you can see they’re bored and just want something to take their mind off things. Being able to buy something older children will enjoy, such as games consoles and a screen projector would make a real difference to these patients.”

Ward 85 is the hospital’s respiratory, cystic fibrosis and rheumatology unit. Specialities on the ward also include cardiology, immunology, endocrinology and metabolic conditions. The majority of patients come from across the North West of England, but due to the specialities on the ward patients sometimes come from elsewhere in the UK and even from other countries. 

A large portion of the young patients treated there have long-term health conditions such as cystic fibrosis, which means they can be admitted onto the ward for weeks or even months at a time.

“One patient recently left us after more than 400 days on the ward – we become home to these children for a long time,” said Gabrielle.

Although they have all run solo, the group keep themselves motivated by sharing their run times and pictures on the fitness app Strava and on a private Facebook group. The challenge was even supported by some of the staff members currently on maternity leave, who were joining in the challenge by racking up the kilometres by walking in parks with their babies.

Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity fundraises throughout the year to support the treatment, research and care of young patients treated at the children’s hospital in Oxford Road, Manchester and at the satellite unit Starlight at the Wythenshawe Hospital campus. The hospital sees more than 280,000 patients per year and takes in patients from across the North West and beyond.

The money raised by Gabrielle and the team will go into the Charity’s Ward 85 fund – so every penny raised will be spent on the unit for the benefit of the Ward 85 patients.

Gabrielle originally set the target as £1,500. But the JustGiving Page was so well supported, they’ve now upped their target to £5,000, but that too has been beat and the total now stands at £5,652.

Shannon Appleyard, Community Fundraising Officer for Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity, has been virtually cheering on the team. She said: “We all know how hard our wonderful NHS nurses work, so the fact they’re finding the motivation and time to go running on their days off is really inspiring.

“The whole team has done so well with their fundraising and I’m sure the patients will be very grateful for the new equipment. I can’t wait to find out how they all got on.”

To support the Ward 85 team, visit:

• https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ward85-rmch