We are approaching completion of two of our really big campaigns – our One gene all the difference appeal to expand Royal Brompton’s Genetics and Genomics service, and our Building for brighter futures appeal to extend the Intensive Care Unit and Scanner centre at Harefield.  If you have been part of these successes – thank you. We are able to give money to the Trust for these two extraordinary ambitions thanks to donors, fundraisers taking on sponsored challenges, Charitable Trusts, event attendees and our volunteers. And these projects save lives – so, I salute you. 

I also salute, and say a huge well done to, our six brave London marathon runners. One of them was Royal Brompton’s very own Dr Simon Padley who ran for our Charity and raised over £1,000 – fantastic! 

Keep checking our online news area to see what is happening at Harefield. We’re so excited to watch each day as a world-class intensive care unit emerges out of the mud, to treat hundreds of patients each year. It is just wonderful to see. 

As you know, we never stand still at the Charity – as well as everything else, we are ramping up our fundraising for our Patients’ Fund, which you may have read about in News Beat. (If you’d like to receive News Beat, remember you can sign up in just a couple of seconds on our homepage.)  Small sums can make a huge difference, and these smaller projects are invaluable for our patients and their families. But they fall outside what can be funded by the NHS, and that’s where we step in. Through this appeal, we fund live music to cheer people up on the wards, warming blankets for our elderly patients, exercise equipment to get our patients (literally) back on their feet, as well as much more. Read all about this special appeal here.

Finally, with the news that there will be a snap General Election in June, we wanted to let you know that, while this makes it slightly more difficult to campaign actively, we are still very much here to fight the campaign against the outrageous proposals by NHS England to close our congenital heart disease services. So please know that if it looks like things have gone a little quiet – don’t fret. Once 8 June has come and gone, we will come out loud and clear and fighting – I promise you.