Bright and very early last Friday morning, 25 of our very special donors joined us for a tour of the building site where, slowly but surely, Harefield Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ITU) extension is emerging from the ground.

Among the guests was former Mayor of Hillingdon, Councillor George Cooper, who donated a whopping £50,000 to the extension as part of his Charity appeal last year.

Current Mayor Councillor John Hensley, who has kindly appointed us as his Charity of the Year, also attended to learn more about how his support will help save lives.

After a tour of the building works on the ground floor, guests were taken up to a balcony for a bird’s eye view of the site.

Over breakfast bacon rolls in the hospital’s auditorium, Peter Doyle, Divisional Lead Nurse and Associate General Manager of the heart division at Harefield Hospital, laid out plans for the Unit’s sunshine therapy room. A nod to Harefield’s heritage (see photograph), this innovative part of the project will give critically ill patients prolonged access to sunlight.

Consultant Cardiologist Joyce Wong emphasised the need for the six extra bedrooms, which will allow an additional 250 patients to be treated on the unit each year. 

We were delighted to also be joined by Chris Hyatt, who ran the Brighton Marathon last year, raising more than £5,000 towards the ITU extension. Chris felt compelled to fundraise after his sister, Joanne, who also attended the tour, was saved at Harefield after a terrifying bout of swine flu.

Chris is set to run the marathon again in April this year.

Thank you to all the donors who came along for our special tour for their continued support of this hugely worthwhile project.

If you’d like to learn more about our special donor tours, please contact us at: [email protected].