Author: SSCF Admin

Update on committee and trustees

The last year has seen significant changes in the committee for the Sussex Stroke and Circulation Fund.
Mr Caruana, a long term committee member, has taken over the role as chairperson after Mr Brooks retired from the post. Our administrator, Maxine Wilson, has also retired from her role after many years. The committee wish to take this opportunity to thank both Mr Brooke’s and Maxine for their commitment to the charity over the previous 17 years.
Mr Rodway, who has been a committee member for many years, been asked to become a trustee for the charity and we are pleased that he has accepted.
We also welcome representation to the committee from our Vascular Scientists and clinical nurse specialists – welcome to Darren, Hannah and Jason.

Seasons Greetings

The SSCF has been helping Vascular Services throughout Sussex despite the difficulties of the past two years.

While limited, our achievements have included purchasing an ultrasound scanner for the new Vascular Department at Southlands Hospital in Shoreham.  We purchased and donated to Victoria Hospital in Lewes a column lift couch to enable the expansion of services to treat varicose veins. We continue to support NHS staff to improve their knowledge and skills in dealing with Vascular Patient Care by providing bursaries for 3 nurses to attend the South Bank University earlier this year.

We also encourage vascular staff to attend the Annual Vascular Society conference by contributing towards the cost of conference fees.

We have managed to do all of this despite fundraising activities having been curtailed and the demands facing our Committee members during the Covid crisis.

As you probably know, all of our Committee members are frontline NHS staff including a number of Consultant Surgeons.

We are looking forward with optimism to 2023 when we hope to resume and active programme of fundraising and ongoing support for Vascular Services throughout Sussex.

In the meantime, we wish all of our supporters a very Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.

A Message for all our supporters and fund raisers

In common with almost every other charity in the United Kingdom, we have put on hold all of our fund raising plans for 2020. The workload of the Vascular Consultants has decreased significantly as clinics have been cancelled and consultants are concentrating on phone consultations unless they feel they really need to see a patient.

If you are worried about any current vascular problem you have or a possible diagnosis please contact your GP. Although many GP practices are not holding face to face appointments, many are holding telephone or Facetime appointments.

The situation is rapidly changing so please respect the current advice from the NHS and the Government.

Limiting your interactions with others is a key message we are hearing from those Doctors working with Covid-19 patients and the Government. Please stay home and do not meet up with friends and family in person.

Washing your hands will kill the virus. Wash frequently with soap and water for at 20 seconds, making sure that you reach all parts of your hand, fingers and thumbs. This is a video which may help:

Keep Moving – Whilst it is not easy, try to do some exercise at home. Keeping mobile is important. There are many places on the internet that you can access home based exercise.

Until we can all meet again to continue our work for the Sussex Stroke & Circulation Fund, please keep safe and well.

Vascular Awareness Month – September 2019

The Royal Sussex County Hospital is joining 3 other hospitals for a static bike race to raise funds for the SSCF and a national vascular charity.

The SSCF bike will be stationed in the Vascular Assessment Unit on Level 8 Tower in the Royal Sussex County Hospital between 2nd and 30th September and we are inviting anyone and everyone to pop up and cycle for a few minutes so we can achieve 956 MILES in the month – that’s the equivalent of cycling from Lands End to John O’Grotes.   Our competitors are the Manchester Vascular Centre, the Royal Oldham Hospital and the Wythenshawe Hospital.

We’ll be keeping a keen eye on their progress and hope to get to our target first as well as raising the most money for SSCF and the Circulation Foundation.

Please come along and cycle for us – even for just one or two minutes!

SSCF and Data Protection Requirements

You may have heard about the new General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) that comes into effect May 25th, 2018. To help comply with GDPR consent requirements, we will be asking recipients of our annual posted newsletter to contact us by email or text message to say “Yes” if they wish to remain on the mailing list.