We publish a 6 monthly newsletter with lots of information about the goings on at the hospital.  The latest web version is available below but if you prefer to download a PDF go to the Newsletter Archive where you'll also find older versions.

I open this Newsletter with some excellent news about one of our volunteers. Each year Fareham Borough Council asks for nominations for their Citizen of Honour awards. These awards, and there are only two each year, recognise outstanding work in the community by Fareham citizens over a long period of time. This year our Treasurer, Peter Humphreys, has been recognised and will receive his award at the Mayor Making Ceremony on 17th May. This ceremony takes place at Waypoint Church, Hunts Pond Road and members of the public can attend if they so wish. Peter is and has been involved in many organisations over a long period of time in addition to his continued commitment to the Friends. Huge congratulations to Peter for this achievement.

We continue to be a very busy group with our Memory Groups continuing to flourish and particularly our Hospitality Team who are delivering teas and coffees to patients and their families/carers on a more frequent basis. Our Gardening Group have a major DIY task to perform as we have had a donation from the hospital of a very large compost bin which needs construction. This Group are always on the lookout for more volunteers.

We held a very successful Quiz Night in April at the Royal British Legion in Park Gate and hope to have another later in the year so please watch out for more details.

Our Health Talks continue, and our next speaker is Catherine Green, the Home and Well Hub Coordinator from the Princess Royal Trust. Catherine will be talking about her role delivering help and advice for those of us caring for family/friends at home.

Our major event this year is a planned Family Summer Fun Day to be held on Saturday 29th June at the hospital – full details are in the flyer in this newsletter.

Finally, as always, my thanks go to all our volunteers and committee without whom The Friends could not function.

Best wishes - Anne Ford (Chair)

Do you have a bit of free time that you would like to fill, meeting new people, having fun and doing something worthwhile for the community? If the answer to this question is ‘yes’ then please get in touch. The Friends are looking for volunteers to help on an ad-hoc basis at times to suit you. We have a variety of roles to fill and more information about the work we do can be found on our website Friends of Fareham Community Hospital. A volunteer application form can be found in the Downloads section.

The hospitality services continue to grow serving the chemo patients with drinks and biscuits. We also offer drinks to other patients and sell wrapped biscuits.

Refreshments are also offered at our evening talks.

On 19 February the lovely Sarah Hobbs returned to sing a new selection of songs including specific requests from our guests. Everyone sang along with her heartily and several were up dancing!

For ‘Valentines’ our ‘resident IT expert’ Sally Johnson, previously one of our carers and also a professional photographer, took individual and couples portrait photos of our guests and subsequently gifted each a beautiful copy to keep.

On 25 March, Val Young, another of our carers, and her daughter Toni played keyboard for a ‘summer singalong’ which was a lot of fun and got folk up and dancing.

Edward Richardson, one of our original carers, continues his loyal support weekly for our group and is now our regular 'bingo caller' - a game requested and enjoyed by all our guests.

Jenni Mills visits most weeks with her dog Tilly, a therapy dog who is much loved by all our guests.

Lorna Young visits Memory Group regularly to give free hand massages to any of our guests who would like this. The following picture shows that not just humans like the attention and that Tilly was not going to miss out!

At Easter the afternoon group celebrated in fine form, they had Easter cakes and eggs plus a wonderful selection of Homemade Easter bonnets. 

Best wishes 
  Janet Cowan & Petta Dillaway
 

We are a member of the Good Neighbours Network, https://goodneighbours.org.uk/ This provide us with a number of services including policies and guidelines and free insurance cover for employers’ liability, public liability and products liability. GNN also make available a database programme for use by our Transport Group to track journeys.

The unit, located on the health campus at Brook Lane, Park Gate was officially opened on 20 October 2023. The 25-bed centre, based at the Fareham Community Hospital site, treats up to 150 patients a week and saves local patients more than 380,000 miles of travel distance. The Friends purchased two wheelchairs for the Unit, and these were presented on the opening day.

Brian Bayford sadly passed away at QA Hospital early on Friday morning, 9th February.

Brian was awarded the first Queens Scout award in 1953, the highest scouting honour. His involvement with the NHS goes back many years - long before he and Susan became a partnership. He was a manager in regional HA offices in Winchester, after which he became the manager at Coldeast Hospital right up until its closure.

Brian was also a very strong supporter of the Community Hospital, having been involved in its planning all those years ago, and was one of our Patrons. Brian was also a local Councillor and was Mayor in 2010 – 2011. When Susan became Mayor in May 2018, Brian was her consort. On 14th June 2018, in recognition of his services to Fareham, he was bestowed with the title of Honorary Alderman. There is a tribute page to Brian where you can add your own tribute and if you also wish a donation at: https://brianbayford.muchloved.com
 

Spring is here and the gardening team has already been busy. On Thursday 11 April a team of six had a great session under the guidance of Amanda. Our attention was on the roundabout. We moved all of the bulbs to new locations further back, cleared out dead and unwanted plants and shrubs, moved several of the plants (including those we put in in November) and planted several new ones. It is now ready for our next lot of new plants.

We were very fortunate that Jill S, David and Tilly joined us for encouragement, making us hot drinks and feeding us delicious homemade ginger biscuits.

Our recent session was on Wednesday 24 April from around 9.30am, and we had a good group again

Over the course of the morning and early afternoon, 4 of us weeded and cleaned the 3 inner courtyards. New plants were installed on the roundabout and some existing plant locations were adjusted. A second group of 4 worked at the rear of the hospital to lay some paving slabs for the composter followed by erection of the new triple bin wooden composter on the slabs.

The gardening team also maintains the three large planters donated by GB partnerships.

If you would like to get involved with the gardening group, contact Robert Cowan at bobthesailor@icloud.com. You don’t need to turn up for every date, just whenever you have the time.

It has now been two years since we first ran trials of The FFCH transport service. Since this time, the service has gone from strength to strength, transporting residents living within a 10-mile radius of the Fareham Community Hospital to their appointments at the hospital.

However, we are always looking for ways to expand our service further and make more people aware of the fantastic service our transport team provides. If you know of anyone that might need help getting to their appointment at the Fareham Community Hospital, please make them aware of this service.

Alternatively, if you know of anywhere that might be able to display one of our small, A5 posters, please get in touch. The number to call is 07760 450 930.

A Quiz Night, on Saturday 13th April 2024 at the Royal British Legion, was a great success and included a ploughman’s meal. An entertaining evening, so much so that we will certainly have another quiz before too long.

Thursday 18 January. Everyone has a Story. By Veronica Blake - Wellbeing & Mental Health.

Thursday 21 March. Blood Runners - A free rapid response courier service to the NHS. Transporting blood products to NHS Hospitals in Hampshire, Dorset and South Wiltshire.

Further meetings being planned include the help provided by The Princess Royal Trust for Carers; to be held at the hospital on the evening of Thursday 16th May. 

The Friends are organising a Family Fun Day to be held in the grounds of The Fareham Community Hospital on Saturday 29th June 2024 12-00-4.00pm. There will be a mix of entertainment, food, opportunities to buy, and fun games and activities. As well as raising money for The Friends, we will also be supporting Sophie’s Legacy and other local charities.

If you, or anyone you know, has some free time and would like to get involved and help on the day, we would welcome any help that you can give, even if it’s just for an hour.

Alternatively, if you or anyone you know would like to book a stall, please contact Elaine Gamm. To put your name on the list of helpers, or for more information about booking a stall, please email elainegamm@hotmail.co.uk

The Friends of Fareham Community Hospital continues to provide a regular, though small, income from Fareham Community Lottery. Several of the individuals who have purchased tickets have already won small prizes.

The funding is derived from the sale of lottery tickets and if you wish to support FFCH in this way, while at the same time having an opportunity to win cash prizes of up to £25,000.00 every week then go to www.farehamlottery.org.uk and search for Friends of Fareham Hospital. FFCH receives 40p per ticket sold.

Details available at: https://www.farehamlottery.org.uk

Many thanks to all those members who have paid their Membership fees for this year.

The membership fee remains at £5.00, is due in June each year and can be paid by either :

Direct bank transfer to our Barclays Bank account Sort Code: 20-30-89, Account Number: 43888142 or

by giving a cheque to our Treasurer:

Peter Humphreys 47 Crescent Road Locks Heath Southampton SO31 6PE

Cheques should be made payable to “Friends of Fareham Community Hospital”.

Best regards The FFCH team April 2024