Last week we were kindly invited along to attend the Blue Light Day at Oxford United. It was the first time they had held this event at the Kasam stadium and we were expecting a big crowd as the event tied in with a home game fixture against Cheltenham.

When we arrived the car park was bustling with emergency service vehicles, including ambulances, fire engines, army vehicles and mounted horses. The cadets were also there in their uniforms practising their marching routines for later in the day.

We were shown to the event space and set up our stand next to the Oxford NHS Trust who were there to carry out blood pressure checks and to offer health advice.

We were met by our amazing volunteers Nigel and Emma Wemyss as well as Caroline Heason and Marylin Rackstraw from the Patient Experience team who kindly helped me unload and set up the stand.

Nigel happily offered to dress up in our Harry Bear mascot costume and was soon up and about in it with Emma meeting and greeting the Oxford United fans who were starting to arrive for the match – he was a real trooper! Harry Bear seems to bring a smile to all who meet him.

Also on our stand was Dr Lizzie Burns, who works as a creative specialist at University College Hospital. Lizzie teaches origami and was on hand to show visitors to the stand how to make origami love hearts for Mother’s Day.

Lizzie is a good friend of the charity and has worked closely with our Arts Co-ordinator Ruth Charity across our hospitals working with staff and patients on many of our wellbeing activities.

It was a wonderful day and it was great to be able to meet and talk to people about the charity and explain what impact we make to their local hospitals. We are looking forward to going again next year.

---

MEET JANE

I am the Marketing and Communications Officer at the Charity. I have worked here for almost two years now and love working at the charity. My role at the charity is to highlight the work that we do and the impact that we make across our hospitals. One of my main roles is to help increase visibility in our hospitals so that staff and patients are aware of what we do and that we exist. This includes signage, posters, plaques and visuals such as our lovely vinyl artwork on the lifts. I wear many hats and also help to create content such as gathering stories and news for our website, socials and Torch Magazine. I also write articles on the amazing projects we have funded and the impact that they have on the staff and patients. I also help to promote our events and enjoy getting out and about meeting fundraisers at our events and in the hospitals.