Laura Jane's story

My name is Laura Jane Thompson, and I'm here for spinal surgery. I had it on Tuesday. I've been here several times before. I know quite a lot of the nurses and they're all really kind and they look after me really well. I think it's really kind that people donate things to the hospitals, which means they can be spent on a really good cause, and some entertainment means that the children can have fun during their stay, and my Dad says that if you're happy in hospital you get better quicker.

Anne Marie's story

In August 2008 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It's almost like you're in a dream and you can't believe that it's happened: and then, in the middle of the night, the chaotic thoughts crowd in and you realise that it is you, and you have got cancer, and you don't know what the outcome will be, it's just a horrible, horrible feeling. You feel out of control, you feel devastated, for yourself but also for all the people around you. Being able to come into a garden, where you can just sit and be, and be alone with your thoughts, your prayers, your hopes, your fears in particular, gives you the opportunity to process it for yourself. When I look back over my journey through this cancer diagnosis and treatment I can see that the gardens and the beautiful artworks around the building give me little sparks of light and hope in what's been a difficult time. And it is overwhelming that people will donate to the hospital, not knowing who's going to benefit from that, but I have, so thank you.

Teddy's story

My son Teddy, who's nearly three, was born with all his bones in his skull fused together, and he didn't have a soft spot, and as his brain grew it was crushing on the edge of his skull. He's got a scar, a zig-zag, which goes from one ear, right the way across to the other ear. His first operation, they took a strip of his skull all the way over, removed it, and then his second operation they went in through the same scar again and they just smashed it up like a jigsaw and rebuilt it so there was more space for his brain to grow. But he's really quite proud of the scar. Teddy absolutely loves it, he comes in and he does all the things that he doesn't usually do at home, and the Play Specialists are fantastic, painting, and they managed to keep him occupied for 24 hours when he had some monitor in on his brain. They're amazing, what they do: well, without them and this hospital we wouldn't have Teddy, so it's fantastic.

Christine's story

My name is Christine Dobson, I'm fourth generation Oxonian, and I came in because I was having a heart attack. And I've had bypass surgery and I'm just waiting for a pacemaker to be implanted, and then I can go home. I must admit I avoid hospitals like the plague, but here, the facilities, because it is so new, you have your own en-suite, the domestics are great, the nurses, nothing is ever too much trouble, and the standard of nursing and care is second to none. People who donate to the heart centre are very courageous, especially in this economic climate when maybe there isn't so much money to splash around, but, by giving money, you live on. generation to generation, because you have helped, by giving a piece of equipment so somebody else lives, maybe many 'somebody elses', so life continues, which is as far as I'm concerned, what it's all about.

Nick Maynard
Consultant Surgeon

The NHS has provided this fantastic new Cancer Centre, but there are limited funds, it can't pay for everything, and for understandable reasons they couldn't afford to pay for the state-of-the-art operating theatres. We want the absolute best in Oxford so we can provide the best for our patients: to get that we relied very heavily on the Charitable Funds and fundraising from patients and friends and really without their support and the huge amount of work they did and their generosity this wouldn't have happened, so we are fantastically grateful.

Colin Forfar
Consultant Cardiologist

We are very privileged and very lucky to have been able to open the new Oxford Heart Centre last autumn, and to be able to offer really very high quality facilities for the care of a very complex array of heart disease that patients suffer from, and to bring all of the skills and expertise that has always existed in Oxford, under one roof. When a patient presents now to a heart attack, whether it's on the streets of Oxford or even further apart, as far away as Milton Keynes and Banbury, they will be brought straight to the Heart Centre, day or night, and they will have the angiogram procedure which starts really on the very first hour of their presentation in hospital, on the road to recovery.

Robin Choudhury
Hon. Consultant Cardiologist

We have now really very advanced internationally unique facilities, but in order really to make the most of them we do need to add on those things that will really enhance the patient experience, make life easier for their relatives when they visit, allow us to share the sorts of techniques and research programmes that we're undertaking locally with our colleagues more widely including throughout the NHS and even internationally.

Christine Turner
Senior Play Specialist

We rely totally on fundraisers to be able to provide all the things that help make this hospital so special, so it's the fabric of the building, the environment, state-of-the-art incubators and other equipment, blood pressures and heart monitoring. We have a sensory room, we have multi-media rooms. All of them are funded by donations.

Andrew House
Head of Major Gifts

Fundraising in the hospital is vitally important, it transforms the experience of patients in the hospital. We are able to buy the latest technology like this robot, and it means that patients have less time waiting in hospital for their drugs. At the Horton Hospital we are just about to refurbish the Brodey Centre. Our donors' generosity has meant that we have been able to help some of our youngest patients through to some of our oldest. We are refurbishing the Neonatal area, so some of the tiniest babies are helped by having homeward-bound rooms, and then we have the Geratology, which is for our older patients here. The generosity and enthusiasm of our donors is inspiring to us in Charitable Funds, and we really want to say a huge thank you to them. It makes a difference in this hospital every day and – Thank You.

Thank You.

We really are fantastically grateful, so thank you very much indeed.