If You Do One Thing Today, Please Visit This Link.
Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham Charity
Above is a link to one of the most important charities in my life. This is the hospital that repeatedly saved my life, and asked nothing in return. This is the hospital that continues to care for me, that gives me small home comforts when away from home, that literally does everything from keeping me breathing to helping me go to the toilet (in more ways than one). So it's fair to say I am grateful.
Now, it may not seem vital what they do, as what they provide isn't healthcare as such, it is wellbeing care and research and equipment. It's no secret that the NHS is struggling, just as it is no secret that it saves lives every single day. But that's something for a different post, as I have an awful lot to say about the NHS, and everything we take for granted. So anyway, for the NHS to run and continue to save lives, it has to do just that, focus on saving lives. Meaning that often when you're in hospital, things that keep you mentally going can be forgotten. Because they kind of have to be. Priorities and all that. For a day or two, this is totally manageable, but when you're in hospital for months on end, it can really drain your positive attitude. Something which you need to get better. Trust me, things go a lot slower, and a lot worse without it. Even if they go exactly the same. Just as the research and equipment that they fund isn't a NHS priority either, as for the most part, hearts can keep beating without them. This doesn't for a second mean that they're unnecessary, more that the NHS gets given the choice of "save five lives or save one more difficult life", so difficult decisions are made. Difficult decisions that shouldn't have to be made. Difficult decisions which we have the power to stop having to be made. Isn't that amazing?
I'm not going to pretend to be this all knowing expert on the subject matter, because I'm really really not. But I know that this charity have funded very important services for the hospital, such as Fisher House. This is a home away from home for families of military patients, as this hospital is primarily a military one. You can find out more about this, and other major things the charity has funded by clicking on this link here > QEHB Charity Funding
There is one particular mention on there of the YPU. Whilst it's not something I personally experienced, I had a friend in school, and I have another friend now, who have. In fact, the friend from school created a website to raise money for a different cause, Stephens Story. When I was scared, he would always put things into perspective for me, and when I was bored in hospital whilst he was a few floors up from me on the YPU, he'd tease me and tell me how great it was up there. Wi-Fi, pizza, video games. Because he liked to see the best in the worst situations, and that was the greatest thing about him. My other friend who has experienced this unit, he actually met Ste there, and Ste helped him through some of his first encounters with chemotherapy.
My mind seems to have wandered away from my main point, sorry. That damn Crohn's brain again. Back to the wellbeing aspects of the charity. These are things that every patient in the hospital experiences. For instance, sometime two, maybe three years ago, the charity started funding hospital wide Wi-Fi. This seems pretty unimportant, but trust me, on your 6th week in hospital, you're praising whoever pays for the Netflix subscription you've logged into years ago and never been logged out of. Also, it's surprisingly fast Wi-Fi. It means that when I'm stuck in a hospital bed, I can continue with my university work, it means I can watch Netflix, it means I can delve deep into Youtube rabbit holes, it means I can look at someones Facebook album of holiday photos that I met once five years ago, it means I can maintain some aspects of normality. Not that my norm is creeping on peoples photographs who I barely know and have maybe never had a single conversation with yet know a surprising amount about their personal lives. Side note: set your profiles to private.
Another home comfort that the charity provide is that they have a large amount of volunteers that work within the hospital. Some of which go onto the wards each day and help with the meal times to allow the nurses and auxiliary nurses continue with caring for your physical health. They also help with bringing the greatest part of your day round - the tea and coffee trolley. If you stay long enough to know them well, you might even get a sneaky slice of cake or pack of biscuits off of them.
They run events all year round to help fundraise, all of which can be found on their website and various social media. There is also a 'Donate' option on their homepage, which I highly recommend 😊 I'm not trying to say that I'm this perfect being that donates half of my wages each month to them (mainly because I would literally run out of food if I did this), but I do try to donate something every three months to them. The reason I do this, is that there are two other important charities to me that I also try to donate to. No doubt these will get their own posts in due course.
Now, this is really a small example of all of the great things this charity do, because;
1) A lot of their work goes unmentioned
and
2) A lot of it is geared towards services which I personally do not require.
But, it's just a post I really felt I needed to write at some point, and as I'm sat here in my Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham Charity t-shirt, I felt like maybe now was as good a time as any.
Love and shit x
Above is a link to one of the most important charities in my life. This is the hospital that repeatedly saved my life, and asked nothing in return. This is the hospital that continues to care for me, that gives me small home comforts when away from home, that literally does everything from keeping me breathing to helping me go to the toilet (in more ways than one). So it's fair to say I am grateful.
Now, it may not seem vital what they do, as what they provide isn't healthcare as such, it is wellbeing care and research and equipment. It's no secret that the NHS is struggling, just as it is no secret that it saves lives every single day. But that's something for a different post, as I have an awful lot to say about the NHS, and everything we take for granted. So anyway, for the NHS to run and continue to save lives, it has to do just that, focus on saving lives. Meaning that often when you're in hospital, things that keep you mentally going can be forgotten. Because they kind of have to be. Priorities and all that. For a day or two, this is totally manageable, but when you're in hospital for months on end, it can really drain your positive attitude. Something which you need to get better. Trust me, things go a lot slower, and a lot worse without it. Even if they go exactly the same. Just as the research and equipment that they fund isn't a NHS priority either, as for the most part, hearts can keep beating without them. This doesn't for a second mean that they're unnecessary, more that the NHS gets given the choice of "save five lives or save one more difficult life", so difficult decisions are made. Difficult decisions that shouldn't have to be made. Difficult decisions which we have the power to stop having to be made. Isn't that amazing?
I'm not going to pretend to be this all knowing expert on the subject matter, because I'm really really not. But I know that this charity have funded very important services for the hospital, such as Fisher House. This is a home away from home for families of military patients, as this hospital is primarily a military one. You can find out more about this, and other major things the charity has funded by clicking on this link here > QEHB Charity Funding
There is one particular mention on there of the YPU. Whilst it's not something I personally experienced, I had a friend in school, and I have another friend now, who have. In fact, the friend from school created a website to raise money for a different cause, Stephens Story. When I was scared, he would always put things into perspective for me, and when I was bored in hospital whilst he was a few floors up from me on the YPU, he'd tease me and tell me how great it was up there. Wi-Fi, pizza, video games. Because he liked to see the best in the worst situations, and that was the greatest thing about him. My other friend who has experienced this unit, he actually met Ste there, and Ste helped him through some of his first encounters with chemotherapy.
My mind seems to have wandered away from my main point, sorry. That damn Crohn's brain again. Back to the wellbeing aspects of the charity. These are things that every patient in the hospital experiences. For instance, sometime two, maybe three years ago, the charity started funding hospital wide Wi-Fi. This seems pretty unimportant, but trust me, on your 6th week in hospital, you're praising whoever pays for the Netflix subscription you've logged into years ago and never been logged out of. Also, it's surprisingly fast Wi-Fi. It means that when I'm stuck in a hospital bed, I can continue with my university work, it means I can watch Netflix, it means I can delve deep into Youtube rabbit holes, it means I can look at someones Facebook album of holiday photos that I met once five years ago, it means I can maintain some aspects of normality. Not that my norm is creeping on peoples photographs who I barely know and have maybe never had a single conversation with yet know a surprising amount about their personal lives. Side note: set your profiles to private.
Another home comfort that the charity provide is that they have a large amount of volunteers that work within the hospital. Some of which go onto the wards each day and help with the meal times to allow the nurses and auxiliary nurses continue with caring for your physical health. They also help with bringing the greatest part of your day round - the tea and coffee trolley. If you stay long enough to know them well, you might even get a sneaky slice of cake or pack of biscuits off of them.
They run events all year round to help fundraise, all of which can be found on their website and various social media. There is also a 'Donate' option on their homepage, which I highly recommend 😊 I'm not trying to say that I'm this perfect being that donates half of my wages each month to them (mainly because I would literally run out of food if I did this), but I do try to donate something every three months to them. The reason I do this, is that there are two other important charities to me that I also try to donate to. No doubt these will get their own posts in due course.
Now, this is really a small example of all of the great things this charity do, because;
1) A lot of their work goes unmentioned
and
2) A lot of it is geared towards services which I personally do not require.
But, it's just a post I really felt I needed to write at some point, and as I'm sat here in my Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham Charity t-shirt, I felt like maybe now was as good a time as any.
Love and shit x
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