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Charity Race Night

Under starters orders! Please come and support our next fundraiser - a fantastic evening of racing fun and frolics!

Churchill Memorial Hall, Ladymead Lane, Churchill, BS25 5NH

7.30pm on Friday 17 May 2019

Tickets are £12 each which includes a fish and chip supper. Cash bar.

To buy tickets (£12), sponsor a race (£25) or name a horse (£10), please contact:

Wendy Beatty Tel 07752 282741 or email Wendy @ cedarwm.co.uk

With very grateful thanks to The Kitchen Man for sponsoring this event.

New Bright and Cheerful Mural on Level 3

Since January 2019, visitors to Gloucester Ward have been welcomed by a large and colourful mural - commissioned by the hospital’s management, designed and painted by local artist Amy Hutchings and paid for by the Friends.

Amy was asked to create a colourful, vibrant and positive image illustrating Bristol Eye Hospital as central to eye health in the city. It also had to be robust and easily cleaned to conform to modern hospital health and safety standards. Amy’s design includes BEH in a skyline with green space, sky and water and uses primary colours more visible to the partially sighted and appealing to all ages.

Consultant Denize Atan commented “Hospitals are designed and decorated to meet pragmatic demands on space within a limited budget. Few hospitals have budgets to make spaces appealing, yet studies have shown that exposure to ‘greenness’ and natural environments may improve surgical outcomes. So we are excited to work with Amy to improve the hospital environment by decorating indoor spaces with outdoor scenes.”

The Friends were delighted to fund this project and we’re sure you’ll agree that it creates a much brighter and welcoming environment.

Other examples of Amy Hutching’s work can be found at www.amyhutchings.co.uk.

26 February 2019

In Sight 2019

A new edition of In Sight is now available in the Eye Hospital. You can also view or download a copy from our In Sight page. Copies will be distributed to members and supporters shortly.

We apologise for the delay in producing In Sight. We have been without a Publicity Officer for a year or so; but we are now delighted to welcome Kevin Abbey in that role and thank him for producing the new edition - our first since April 2017 - a bumper issue of 12 pages. We hope you enjoy it!

25 February 2019, updated 8 March

Ashcombe Park Bowling Club's Charity of the Year for 2019

Captain Martin Paterson said “As captain, I have the choice of which charity my club will support throughout the year. Many of our members, including myself, are currently undergoing or have received treatment at Bristol Eye Hospital. Therefore, to show our gratitude for all the treatment we have received, and after talking with Professor Sparrow, it was an automatic choice to support Friends of Bristol Eye Hospital”.

We have designed some new banners for the Bowling Club, based in Weston-super-Mare, to promote the Friends - in readiness for the new outdoor season which starts in April. These will be available for us to use at similar events in future.

In addition to promoting us at their many social events and indoor activities, including short mat bowls, the Club’s seven different teams play in various local league games and host games against visiting teams from all over the country. They also have a dedicated charity day where members dress up to a theme for a fun day of bowls. So lots of opportunities to raise funds for and to promote the Friends.

The club offers six weeks of free coaching for potential new members. If you are interested in playing bowls or joining the Ashcombe Park Bowling Club, there are full details on their website http://www.ashcombeparkbowlingclub.co.uk/

27 March 2019

Brenda Fearn

We are sad to report the death, on 18 January 2019 at the age of 79, of Brenda Fearn, formerly Sister in charge of Day-Case Cataract Surgery, Day-Case Children’s Surgery and Pre-Op Assessment, whom we are sure many patients will remember. Her career in nursing spanned 48 years of which the last 15 were at Bristol Eye Hospital. In the early nineties Brenda and her staff pioneered the practice of pre-op assessment; Brenda also initiated hostel beds on King Ward for day-case patients who lived alone - in those days, they were not allowed home on the day of their operation.

Upon her retirement in 2001 she became a trustee of Friends of Bristol Eye Hospital and served enthusiastically without a break until ill health obliged her to stand down in 2016. Her professional advice, compassion and common sense were appreciated by her fellow trustees and she was much loved and respected by all her colleagues. Consultant Ophthalmologist Cathy Williams says “I have been fond of Brenda ever since my first days as a very junior doctor when she was Sister Fearn and ruled the roost on the wards! She was unfailingly helpful, knowledgeable and funny. She always put patients first and was a joy to work with. I learnt a great deal from her and am one of the many people who will miss her friendship.”

Liz Annesley, Dinah Harrison, Simon St Leger-Harris, Elizabeth Treherne, Heather Walker and Jenny Ward (representing the Friends and the Bristol Eye Hospital) were amongst many at her funeral in St Peter's Church, Henleaze on Friday 22 February.

MyDonate

We were notified on 21 January that BT are closing MyDonate, our online fundraising and donation platform, with effect from 30 June 2019.

Sponsorship, donations, purchase of event tickets or any other payments may continue to be made via the link on the donations page of our website until that date.

The Trustees have selected a new provider and as soon as our application has been processed and we have 'gone live', we will publicise details of our new provider on our website, on Facebook and by email to all of our supporters who have consented to be contacted by email, especially those who currently donate to us via MyDonate or who have used it to raise sponsosrhip for us in the past.

We have been very pleased with MyDonate's services since we started using them in 2013. We are sorry to see them close. They have enabled us to raise funds from sponsorship and from those wishing to donate by debit or credit card - easily and at virtually no cost.

15 February 2019

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

GDPR requires us to protect personal data, inform supporters what data is held for them, how it is used, and how it can be viewed, amended or deleted. We have written to all Members, supporters and volunteers setting out how we comply with GDPR. Our updated Privacy Policy can be viewed on our 'In Sight' page.

If you have not heard from us and wish to be contacted, or if you require any further information about our stance on GDPR, please contact the Secretary.

17 May 2018

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