Staff at the QE helped her mum, Hayley recover from breast cancer in 2019 and her daughter Grace wanted to say thank you by raising £1,000 through QE Charitable funds, the hospital’s charity
14-year-old Grace blogged her challenge on her Just Giving page, running at least 2 miles each day, fitting it in around her school life and lockdown restrictions by setting up a treadmill in her garage and running in her local area.
She also featured on BBC Radio Newcastle, speaking to Alfie Joey in the middle of her challenge. Donations flooded in and by the end of March, Grace raised a huge total of £3,162.
Grace said: “The first week felt like it went on forever this was the first time in a while that I had done exercise day after day.
The next two weeks were really encouraging knowing that the money raised was still going up, getting loads of kind messages from family and friends really helped to keep me going.
The final week was really tough even though I was able to count down on one hand how many runs I had left, this was definitely the week that was the hardest.
After the challenge it was a sense of relief and also happiness. Knowing that the amount raised was hopefully going to help patients who went through similar experiences as my Mum did that was the greatest feeling.”
QE Charitable Funds operates 45+ individual funds covering wards and departments across the hospital, which means donors and fundraisers can identify exactly which part of the hospital they would like to support and we can guarantee 100% of your donation, along with an additional 25% if gift aid is added, goes to your chosen fund.
Donations help us to continue to improve the patient experience by funding things from state of the art equipment to waiting area furniture, TVs and iPads to make our patients visit or stay as comfortable as possible. The charity also funds advanced staff training and development and essential research, both of which benefit the patients we look after here in Gateshead.
If you would like to support QE Charitable Funds by running your own fundraising event or join one of our planned events, we would love to hear from you. To get you signed up, we would need a fundraising form completed (as this is a legal requirement when fundraising), you can do this by emailing the charity at [email protected] or contact Clare King on 07717 337696 for further details.
Thank you for supporting QE Charitable Funds.