DHT provides major boost to the Appeal

The Dorset Health Trust, a local grant making Trust, has stepped forward to help Dorset County Hospital reach its target for the new public appeal to install Digital Mammography Equipment at the hospital.

The charity is to donate £150,000 to the Appeal.  The hospital has agreed to match this amount, giving £150,000 from its existing charitable funds.

“It’s a wonderful boost to the Appeal,” said hospital chief executive, Jean O’Callaghan.  “We’d like to thank The Dorset Health Trust for their very generous offer. 

“We are match funding this from charitable funds we have already, but we still need the financial support of the wonderful people who continue to support this hospital.”

The Dorset Health Trust said “The Dorset Health Trust was instrumental in helping establish the original mammography service when Dorset County Hospital opened and it believe that this new service is not only vital but also should be available as soon as possible and they wished to join with the hospital in getting the appeal off to a flying start.  Chairman Dr Peter Down added: “We hope that the joint commitment of the hospital and this Trust will encourage the public to raise the additional funds required as quickly as possible”

“One of the aims of the Dorset Health Trust is to improve medical facilities in Dorset  particularly those which confer long term benefits. That’s why the Trustees of the Dorset Health Trust agreed to donate £150,000 to the appeal, if the hospital matched that funding.

“A report this week stated that nearly six thousand cases of invasive cancer were detected by the NHS Breast Screening Programme last year involving cancers which were too small to find by hand – just 15 millimetres across – which is why digital mammography is important for Dorset County Hospital.  We want to help ensure this vital equipment is installed for the benefit of local men and women.  It will make a difference.”

Wendy Nightingale, Chair of the Appeal, is delighted with the news.  “This is wonderful and really gives us a head start.  We have had a terrific response from the public: people and businesses have been very generous.  We’ve been opening the post to find cheques each day since we launched.  Not everyone who has donated has given us their address, so we cannot write and thank them, so we would like to say a big thank you to anyone who has already donated money.

“We still have a long way to go, but thanks to DHT’s generosity, this is the best start we could have,” she said.  “Local people can still donate their £1 by dropping a coin in the collection boxes around the hospital, or through Dorchester’s Barclays Bank and Post Office, or by sending a cheque in to the charitable fund.  Details and addresses can be found on http://www.boostdch.co.uk

The Dorset Health Trust Limited is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 26 August 1977 and registered as a charity on 26 October 1977 to promote the relief of sickness primarily by making grants to organisations and medical providers which it deems worthy of support within West, South and North Dorset.

Thank you to the Trustees of the Dorset Health Trust.