STICKING to a new year resolution can be difficult – but a hospital charity is trying to make it a bit easier by calling on residents to sign up to an event and raise funds.
University Hospitals Birmingham Charity has a number of fundraising events available over the course of the year from Wing Walks to Fun Runs and mountain climbing.
The funds raised with help patients, their families and staff at hospitals including Solihull Hospital and Heartlands.
Shirley Lamens embarked on the challenge of a lifetime last year, by taking on the Tandem Skydive to raise funds for the Transplant team at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
They cared for her husband Richard, who suffered a heart attack in 2011 at the age of 55, leaving him with severe heart failure and eventually needing a heart transplant in 2020.
She said: “I decided to take on this challenge as a way to give something back, as we are just in awe of the hospital, the whole experience has been so positive.
“There was a point when we thought, will he ever get a transplant, and then he did; we were so lucky.
“The dedicated care and support given by the heart transplant team and the rest of the hospital staff will stay with us forever and this is just a way of saying thank you.”
Events on offer are a Wing Walk in the spring, Sunrise Snowdon Treks – where people climb mount Snowdon overnight and reach the summit in time for sunrise, the Birmingham Half Marathon and a tandem skydice in the summer.
For more visit www.hospitalcharity.org/events.
