Hospital appeal gets a £609 donation

Trevor and Sue Giles and Nicola Bevan with their cheque for the Arthrose Appeal. Photo: My WiSH Charity.

A Bury St Edmunds hospital charity which is close to the heart of a woman who has had a series of crucial limb replacements has welcomed a boost to its funds.

A total of £609 has gone to My WiSH with it being directed towards the Arthrose Appeal at the West Suffolk Hospital.

And it’s thanks to Emma Murkowski that the money has gone to the charity after she nominated it from the Numbers for a Cause fundraising group which is run by her mother and stepfather Sue and Trevor Giles, who live in Barningham, along with Sue’s daughter Nicola Bevan, from Hepworth.

They run the group on their Facebook site to benefit local charities by organising an online raffle with a variety of prizes and since they started their fundraising, which began with coffee mornings pre-Covid, they have raised an amazing £10,000.

Every month a member of the group gets to choose a recipient of the funds and Emma, who lives in Risby, chose the Arthrose Appeal which was launched by a former school colleague. It aims to raise money for the fracture, orthopaedic and trauma clinics at the hospital as a way of thanking them for the care they gave to his relative who required a series of treatment at the hospital due to severe arthritis.

Emma, 35, suffers from juvenile idiopathic arthritis and has been under the care of the clinics since she was a teenager and has undergone shoulders, elbows and hip replacements along with ankle fusions. She is now waiting to have her other hip replaced.

Her complaint is the most common type of arthritis in children under the age of 16 and can cause persistent joint pain, swelling and stiffness. Some sufferers may experience symptoms for only a few months, while others have symptoms for many years and can cause serious complications, such as growth problems, joint damage and eye inflammation.

It’s a debilitating complaint and Emma said: “The appeal was set up by someone I went to school with and I thought it would be a good cause to support and thought it would help the clinics as the staff there are so, so good.

“It was not until I was 17 that it was found I had joint damage and they were so badly damaged that I required the shoulder replacement and other joints were then found to be damaged.”

Sally Daniels, fundraising manager for My WiSH, thanked Emma for nominating My WiSH Charity and also Sue, Trevor and Nicola for all their hard work too. 

She added: “A lot of work goes into this project from finding prizes, to managing the Facebook page and to even couriering prizes around the area. We can’t thank everyone enough for all their hard work and for choosing to support the orthopaedic services at West Suffolk Hospital. This money really will make a difference”.  

Trevor said they choose a local charity each month and purchase a variety of raffle prizes from garden furniture to sweets and gift vouchers to takeaway meals, in fact “anything that will sell.”

He added: “Numbers for a Cause has taken off really well and we use an online random number generator to choose a winner. It’s all for charity and it’s just built up over the years and it’s become quite a family and friends affair and keeps us busy.”

To find out more about the group go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/2445743805715850

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