Among our most valuable sup​porters and fundraisers are our wonderful event sponsors. We like to work on as tight a budget as possible, so that we can be sure that almost all the money raised by our wonderful participants goes directly to our appeals and campaigns – in fact, we have made it a rule that our events need to be sponsored to achieve this.

We are blessed with tremendous support from the Charity’s bank, Metro Bank, who will, for the second year running, sponsor the Grand Canal Challenge on Sunday 25 June. They are our ‘Gold Sponsors’, if you like. But we have now been joined by ‘Silver Sponsors’ Strutt & Parker, who will not only be helping us to make more for our appeals but will also, like Metro, be entering a team in the Challenge. We’d like to say a big thank you to them for supporting us.

On the topic of our wonderful Grand Canal Challenge (#GCC17, if you’re a Twitter user), we’ve already had lots of people signing up – and no wonder, it is a brilliant event! My family will be out in force and I just know it’s going to be a great day. Please come and join us for the challenge, which you can read more about here. There’ll also be food, drink and music at our Finishers’ Festival at Harefield Hospital, so that you can suitably celebrate your fantastic achievement!  

If you are a frequent visitor to our web pages and to the blog, you’ll have read about Rhonda Davis, aged 78 and a long-time patient of Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals, who recently abseiled down the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth, with her cardiologist, Dr Will Wallis. They’ve raised a lot of money for the hospitals. Congratulations Rhonda and Will! You are amazing – a little crazy – but definitely amazing. If you'd like to help Rhonda meet her target, please visit her fundraising page.     

And finally to our Harefield Intensive Care Unit appeal. I finally got to wear a hard hat at our recent donor tour of the site. While I really should have been a builder, being a fundraiser when remarkable buildings emerge because of Charity funds and support is the next best thing. Thank you to the paper that put us on its front cover  – and of course, to the donors who got us there.

It's a great way of telling people who have helped us that the new Intensive Care Unit and scanner centre at Harefield is really on its way!