Annual Prize Draw 2015/16—Volunteers Needed! Ticket sales have always been good, however, sales could be considerably boosted by the participation of NHS Forth Valley staff. We would particu-larly welcome help from staff working within any of the NHS community hos-pitals or Forth Valley Royal Hospital. If you wish to purchase a ticket for the Annual Prize Draw or sell tickets to colleagues, friends or family members on our behalf please contact the NHS Forth Valley Fundraising Manager on 01324 566 081.

Forth Valley Giving in-tends to launch the Annual Prize Draw earlier this year, producing tickets for distribution in early September with the draw itself taking place live on Radio Royal on Friday the 18th December.

At the time of publication, all the prizes have not yet been finalised, however, there should be something for everybody in this year’s draw. In the past, the Annual Prize Draw has helped raise much needed monies for the General Endowment Fund and the new Maggie’s Centre being built in the grounds of Forth Valley Royal Hospital. This year it is intended that the monies raised will be used to promote im-proved mental health and wellbeing in the Forth Valley area.

Recognition for NHS Volunteers Volunteers who work across NHS Forth Valley have been thanked for their contribution in helping patients. NHS Forth Valley’s Chief Executive Jane Grant paid tribute to their work at an event held at Forth Valley Royal Hospital to mark National Volunteers Week and the Health Board’s success in retaining the prestigious Investing in Volunteers Quality Award. More than 200 volunteers work tire-lessly in a number of areas across the organisation including oncology, the children’s ward and the discharge lounge. Volunteers have also received training allowing them to repair and clean hearing aids in the audiology department with a large number re-cruited through the Retired and Sen-ior Volunteer Programme (RSVP), the Royal Voluntary Service (RVS), Radio Royal, Friends of Forth Valley Royal Hospital and the Friends of Stirling Community Hospital.

Volunteers also help represent the views of patients and the general public at meetings and events through the Patient Public Panel.

The event was also attended by Anne Hislop, Investing in Volunteers Man-ager at Volunteer Scotland who pre-sented NHS Forth Valley with the In-vesting in Volunteers Quality Award. The Award was first achieved by NHS Forth Valley in 2011 and is reassessed every three years.

Chief Executive Jane Grant said: “We decided to hold an event as we wanted to recognise the enormous contribution volunteers make and to say thank you for their hard work and dedication throughout the year.” NHS Forth Valley Director of Nursing Professor Angela Wallace said: “We are delighted to receive this award as it recognises our ongoing commitment to developing and sup-porting the work of volunteers across the organisation. Volunteers make a huge difference to the lives of our patients. Not only do they support people when they are ill or receiving treatment, but they also provide valu-able feedback and suggestions to help improve patient care.” Anyone interested in volunteering with NHS Forth Valley should contact Helena Buckley on 01786 454736 or e-mail: helena.buckley@nhs.net

NHS Chairman Alex Linkston receiving the

Investing in Volunteers Quality Award from

Anne Hislop

Forth Valley Giving Newsletter

NHS Forth Valley Endowment Funds Scottish Charity No: SC035953 July 2015

Enabling people to achieve things that are important to them right up to the end of life including providing compassionate, comfort care in their own home is one of the greatest privileges of the Strathcarron Hospice@Home team. The service, which started in August 2014, was awarded £37,242 by Forth Valley Giving’s Investing In Health Fund with the aim of supporting people who want to be at home in the last two weeks of life. Working closely with other community services, a team of health care assistants with expertise in hospice care provide practical and emotional support as well as personal care. The Team, also works with families, building their confidence in caring right to the end, even in difficult circumstances. Feedback suggests the service makes a huge difference to people’s experience of dying and grief and can often avoid admission to hospital or hospice. Strathcarron Hospice works with more than 1,200 people and their families each year. It provides a wide range of services including; a 24 bedded In-patient Unit, Daycare Ser-vices, Community Nurse Specialist support and advice in people’s homes, Specialist in-put into Hospital Palliative Care Team, 24/7 telephone advice line, Supporting Care Homes, Bereavement support for adults and children, Carers support, Complementary Therapy, Befriending in the last year of life, Specialist lymphoedema service, Versatile learning and education centre and an Active programme of research and audit. For more information about Strathcarron Hospice you can visit their website on: www.strathcarronhospice.net You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

Investing In Health - Hospice@Home Service

The Family Support Service managed by Falkirk & Dis-trict Association for Mental Health received £44,682 from Forth Valley Giving to offer support to local fami-lies affected by poor mental health. The Investing In Health grant has enabled FDAMH to expand their Carers ser-vice into one which sup-ports all family members. FDAMH believe this is a cru-cial recognition that when a family member has poor mental health it has a direct impact on the other family members. FDAMH work has demon-strated that family support helps to improve outcomes for people with mental health problems and other members of their families. Family members are sup-ported to develop resil-ience, self-awareness and problem-solving skills and encouraged to take owner-ship of their situations.

This is achieved through a combination of individual, group and peer support; practical, emotional and therapeutic support; the provision of information; co-ordination with and sign-posting to other services and general education on mental health. It is clear that combining different forms of support, as this project does, is par-ticularly beneficial, helping to find solutions to meet family’s needs. This is evi-denced through the follow-ing quotes from group par-ticipants of a course run by the FSS team: “This has simply been the best course I have been part of for many years. I am al-ready embracing many of the aspects of it, and am benefiting from this on a daily basis. It is an enriching experience which I would highly recommend.” “At the beginning of the course my mood was ex-

tremely low and I could get very angry and agitated easily. I can now take time for myself and not feel guilty and I can also control my thoughts and feelings in a much more positive way.” “The whole group were very nice and open with each other, there was no judge-ment or embarrassment. All in all I have come away from the course very positive which is a good thing.” FDAMH has been support-ing people with mental health in the local commu-nity since 1981 and has added the Family Support Service to extend the range of support offered within the Falkirk Area. Contact Details Falkirk’s Mental Health As-sociation Victoria Centre 173 Victoria Road Falkirk FK2 7AU Tel: 01324 671 600 Email:admin@fdamh.org.uk

Investing In Health - FDAMH Family Support

The Christmas meal for families was well attended, giving people an

opportunity to mix and relax away from the normal daily routines

“This has simply been

the best course I have

been part of for many

years.”

Group Training

Participant

Members of the Hospice@Home Team

Neil Colquhoun - Ironman

Online Fundraising Two examples of fund-raising being under-

taken online in support of Forth Valley Giving

I am taking part in the 2015 Ironman Wales event on the 13th September in Tenby in memory of my mum (Lexie) and to raise money for Ward A22 at the Forth Valley Royal Hospital. During my mum's short ill-ness she was on Ward A22 at the hospital until she un-fortunately died on the 1st July 2014. Throughout her stay on the ward my mum was looked after by a team of dedicated and compassionate staff and it has been a comfort to Dad and I that she was treated with such compas-sion, dignity and respect up

until the end. To recognise the outstanding care that my mum received from all

the staff on Ward A22 I am hoping to raise a minimum of £1,000 that will be used to benefit the patients on the ward. The Iron-man event starts with a 2.4 mile open water sea swim f o l l o w e d b y a challenging 112 mile cycle

around Pembrokeshire and the final discipline is to run a 26.2 mile marathon all to be completed in 17hours. I started a training pro-gramme for this event in February and I am now ap-proximately a third of the way through. As this is my first attempt at a challenge of this size and I am built for comfort rather than speed my target is just to finish in the allotted 17 hours. To support Neil or to set up your own fundraising page, p l e a s e v i s i t w w w . j u s t g i v i n g . c o m /forthvalleygiving

Neil Colquhoun is participating in

the Ironman Wales event on the

13th September 2015

I am taking part in this

years Ironman Wales

event for Forth Valley

Giving because I wish to

raise money in memory of

my mum.

Damian Lord - 180km Ironride Cycle In April 2014, my partner Claire aged 31, mother of my three boys aged three years, two years and six months, was admitted to intensive care with an un-known medical condition.

Claire’s health decreased rapidly and within a few hours of being admitted she had three organ failures. Her blood vessels, kidneys and liver where no longer able to cope with the illness and were shutting down. It was at this time that the team at Forth Valley Royal's Intensive Care worked so hard for Claire.

The first night was a living hell for me but the staff working so hard gave me hope that the longer they worked the more likely

Claire would be to pull through.

The doctors later discovered Claire was suffering from a streptococcal bacterial in-fection that had found its way into her blood stream thereby infecting all areas of her body.

In the end, Claire was un-conscious for nearly two weeks and spent six weeks in Intensive Care. She un-derwent many surgeries to try to relieve swelling and prevent the spread of the infection. Unfortunately,

the infection had spread too quickly for treatment to be fully effective and Claire had to have an above knee am-putation performed on one leg and lost the muscles from the front of the oppo-site lower leg. Both her arms were also affected where diseased tissue was cut away.

In total Claire spent six months in hospital and we are thankful for all the care given, but for me the team in ICU, doctors and nursing staff, who saved Claire for me and our boys, deserve the most credit. So please give generously so they can save more lives.

The Ironride is a ONE DAY, 180km/112miles long cycle sportive and takes place in

“The staff working so hard gave me hope”

Tayside on the 20th Sep-tember. With its challeng-ing hilly profile it is among the most punishing spor-tives in Scotland.

To support Damian or to set up your own fundraising page, please visit w w w . j u s t g i v i n g . c o m /forthvalleygiving

Damian faces a very punishing

challenge in the Ironride

Friends of Forth Valley Royal Hospital

The Friends of Forth Val-ley Royal Hospital is a v o l u n t a r y association

established in 2011 following the crea-tion of the new acute hospital for Forth Valley. The group maintains the long tradition of community based volun-teers providing charitable support to both acute and community hospitals in Forth Valley. Medical equipment, new technology and additional comforts are purchased by the Friends with the help of the local community for the benefit of Forth Valley Royal Hospital and the commu-nity hospitals in Falkirk, Stirling and Clackmannanshire. The Friend’s primary aim is to promote the comfort and welfare of patients, their relatives and staff and provide additional amenities which are not pro-vided by the National Health Service. The Friend’s also aim to stimulate and foster interest in the Forth Valley Royal Hospital and community hospitals and benefit the patients and staff.

Some of the most recent purchases by the group includes; tablets for X-ray, cd’s, cd players and DVD’s for the Renal Unit, colouring books and crayons for Outpatients, the A&E Unit and the Chil-dren’s Ward. The group have also pro-vided funds for the refurbishment of the dining room in Ward B21 and are currently involved in providing slippers for elderly patients in order to reduce the number of falls.

The Friends have 12 Trustees from Falkirk, Stirling and Clackmannanshire but are always seeking more. They are also seeking volunteers to help with various fundraising events. To become i n v o l v e d e - m a i l : c h a i r -man@friendsfvrh.co.uk

Trustees of Friends of Forth Valley Royal Hospi-

tal with their Patron the Rt. Hon Sir George

Forth Valley Giving is the operating name of the NHS Forth Valley Endowments Funds. We exist in order to secure donations for charitable services, activities and amenities which complement the work of NHS Forth Valley and enrich the patient experience. There are more than 100 different endowment funds ranging from the Forth Valley Royal Hospital Children's Ward to Cardiology and research into ageing and health. This means you can choose the particular Ward, Department or Service you wish to benefit. It is now really easy to donate to Forth Valley Giving. You can make a telephone donation by calling 01324 678 543. Cash donations can be made at health facilities throughout the Forth Valley. Please re-member, NEVER send cash to us by post! Cheques & Postal Order donations should be made payable to ‘NHS Forth Valley Endowment Fund’ and sent to us by post or given to a member of staff in charge at

ward or departmental level. Online donations can be made at: www.justgiving.org/forthvalleygiving All donations are held separately from the money used to provide day to day NHS services and are spent in accordance with the wishes of donors. If you make a donation you will always be provided with an acknowledgement and a receipt.

Donate to Forth Valley Giving

The Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 requires Forth Valley Giving to keep proper accounting records, pre-pare an annual statement of account and produce a report on its activities in each financial year. The Act also requires us to provide any individual with a copy of our constitution or our statement of accounts upon request. If you wish to obtain a copy of our constitution or the annual statement of account please call the Fundraising Office on 01324 566 081 or visit our website at: www.nhsforthvalley.com/fundraising

Keeping You Informed

Fundraising Survey A Scottish Council for Voluntary Organi-sations (SCVO) led review into fundrais-ing in Scotland has been launched. Un-dertaken by a group of third sector rep-resentatives, the review will include a survey of the public, charities and fund-raisers. The Scottish Government has asked the sector to look into fundraising practice following some recent fundraising con-troversies. The SCVO’s review will con-sider whether self-regulation of fund-raising is working in Scotland and will report back by the end of August. John Downie, SCVO’s director of public affairs, said: “Our survey gives people a rare oppor-tunity to share their views on an issue that is hugely important to the third sector in Scotland. I would encourage everyone with an interest to take part – charity staff, fundraisers and the gen-eral public - so that we can gain a wide ranging and well-rounded overview of public charity fundraising in Scotland.” To complete the survey just visit: www.surveymonkey.com/r/FundraisingReview