Our Carols by Candlelight Concerts at St Mary’s Church, Harefield on Thursday and St Luke’s in Chelsea on Monday were very special. The candles flickered and there was a gentle aroma of mulled wine ready to warm us at the end of the service.  At Harefield’s celebration, The Junior School brought the house down with Hosanna Rock, and at both celebrations our very own Singing for Breathing Choir, comprised of respiratory patients who use singing as a form of therapy, also received spontaneous applause with their performances.  It was so lovely to see old friends and meet new supporters of the Charity.  Thank you to the Reverend Martin Davies, Rowena Scott and the Charity team for making it such a special evening. 

Our Royal Brompton celebration was equally special. John Nettles (of Bergerac and Poldark fame) read magnificently, as you might expect from an actor, while a former intensive care patient named John Peterson, reminded us of why our hospital is just so fantastic.

As Christmas gets all the closer, there’s a rather special way you can support our Charity without it costing you anything more.  It’s called the ‘Give as you Live’ – some of you already take part in this, but I have yet to sign up and I definitely will.  It’s a reloadable card scheme, which allows you to shop while a certain percentage of the total is donated to our Charity. It is currently focused on supermarkets – so for me it will be a handy way to help my student daughter with her shopping.  To find out more please click here.

And as we welcome our first patients to both the brand new intensive care unit and scanner centre at Harefield and our new two intensive care rooms, at Royal Brompton, the Charity turns its attention to its next challenge.  The very latest appeal is emerging, and I will write about it in my final blog for 2017. 

Have a very happy Christmas everyone and thank you so much for all your friendship and support over the year. Look out for a very special e-newsletter (if you have signed up to receive these – If you haven’t you can do so very quickly on the pink bar on our homepage) It included a special thank you that you won’t want to miss!