NHS staff aim to swap patient records for sports and fundraising records this weekend as the NHS Cup returns to Leicester.
Amateur soccer teams from Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) and Leicester’s Hospitals will be taking part in their fourth annual tournament on Saturday, raising funds to add something extra to the care they provide for patients.
The one-day soccer contest will be played out at the GOALS soccer centre on Wakerley Road in Leicester on Saturday (20 July). The event has become a highlight of the NHS calendar in Leicester as NHS team mates play to raise funds for projects that enhance the experience and recovery of their patients and service users.
Around £2,700 has already been pledged in support of this year’s competition.
Tournament organiser Sam Wilson is a therapeutic liaison worker at the Bradgate Unit. He explained: “NHS staff are passionate about the care they provide for patients and the NHS Cup is just one of the ways they go above and beyond their daily responsibilities to really enhance the care for patients and service users.
“To date the NHS Cup has raised more than £5,200 for projects across the two Trusts and at LPT the 2018 event alone raised £1,500. That helped us to provide specialised exercise bikes for the Bradgate Unit’s refurbished gym, to help service users with disabilities take part in exercise and calm-down’ kits and equipment to soothe people experiencing mental health crises and help them manage their symptoms.
“It has helped to buy social activity equipment to support inpatients at our EvingtonCentre mental health wards for older people and LPT staff and volunteers from Leicestershire Recovery College netted £200 to support a dementia-friendly gardens project on LPT wards and teams from UHL raised £330 for their Kidney Care appeal.”
Competing teams this year include the ‘Basket Weavers’, a team of occupational therapy staff from the Bradgate adult mental health unit. Last year they raised £270 towards ‘Let’s Get Gardening’, a fundraising project aimed at developing garden areas around the wards that will aid patients’ recovery through therapeutic garden activity.
The NHS Cup kicks off at 10.30am and supporters are welcome from 9.30am.
If you can’t get along to the event, you can support the teams by visiting their fundraising pages on the Justgiving website.
NOTES TO EDITORS
- Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) provides community health, mental health and
learning disabilities services for the one million people living in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.
We have a budget in excess of £275 million and employ approximately 5,500 staff. For more
information visit: www.leicspart.nhs.uk - Raising Health is our registered charity (number 1057361) which raises funds to support LPT’s
excellent care initiatives, equipment and innovations which go above and beyond core NHS provision,
to enhance the experience of our patients, service users and staff. www.raisinghealth.org.uk
For further information contact: Sheila Ashton, communications manager for adult mental health
and learning disabilities services Tel: 0116 295 0042, Email: sheila.ashton@leicspart.nhs.uk