Hundreds of donors – you may well have been one of them – helped us to buy a very special incubator called a Giraffe incubator which enables highly skilled doctors to perform intricate procedures on tiny babies – often very tiny and newborn. These babies are born with serious heart defects. Royal Brompton Hospital is the only hospital in the UK that undertakes this life-saving procedure and I have just been told that over 55 operations have been undertaken recently, with babies coming from all over London and South England to have this remarkable procedure. Some of these babies weigh less than 1 kilogram – that’s less than half a bag of sugar – isn’t that amazing?  Many of these operations simply would not have happened without the incubator bought with donations large and small. It was our first foray into crowdfunding – and if you were part of that crowd -  you have been helping to save babies lives. 

So thank you if you helped us buy this very special incubator which makes this surgery possible. Thank you to the two most fantastic surgeons who perform these operations on our babies – Dr Alain Fraisse and Dr Carles Bautista - you are truly remarkable surgeons. Not forgetting everyone who works on our Paediatric Intensive Care Ward. Thanks to you, miracles happen. 

On a completely different subject... I chatted with one of our estate workers last week as they were surveying our offices – using a drone! We work on the second floor of a very high building and to look at the roof you would need a helicopter or miles and miles of scaffolding… But now with a drone I saw really detailed pictures of our roof – this saves thousands of pounds. 

Less than a month to go until our Great Brompton Quiz and just four tables left… this is the Hugh Dennis magic – and the fact that it’s a brilliant event. Are you coming to join us? Better make it snappy as our tables will be gone by the end of the week. And we have, today, been given a brilliant auction prize - can’t tell you more, you have to be there to see it.