Lead Professional Midwife Advocate, Ailsa Gill organised a HUGE fundraiser to make a difference for the maternity staff, and the birthing people of Cornwall by restarting the aromatherapy service.
Ailsa meticulously planned for Maternity staff to walk the whole Southwest coastal path over 4 days. Once signed up, Ailsa spoke with the staff and planned what parts of the coastal path the people were willing to walk. Before the walks took place, Ailsa explained the need for the aromatherapy service,
“The money raised will mean that we can offer our staff the training and resources they need to provide an aromatherapy service for the birthing people of Cornwall. This service will complement the options already in place for our birthing people and we know it will be greatly welcomed by our service users. There is a lot of work to do to ensure the safety and training is in place which is why we want to raise money towards offering this service.
With your helpful donations, we will be spurred on to keep trekking along the coastal path to reach our target of covering the whole distance of the 276 miles from Bude to Rame.” Ailsa Gill.
Wearing their branded purple t-shirts, the team left no mile uncovered, and after 4 magnificent days, the challenge was completed.
Ailsa explained:
“I am incredibly proud to work in a maternity unit where our staff pulled together to achieve our challenge of walking the whole of the Cornish Southwest Coast Path in its entirety in just 4 days! The Cornish Miles for Cornish Maternity Services Walk, in aid of the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Charity Maternity Fund has been a huge success!
Collectively 59 staff members covered the 276 miles of Cornish path from 6-9th September to raise funds for our maternity service. Staff were supported by friends and family as well as the furry pawed friend variety, through the wind, rain, and occasional burst of sunshine! We did it and not 1 mile was left uncovered!
As the Lead Professional Midwife Advocate for Maternity at RCHT, I wanted to support maternity staff by putting a fundraiser together which would involve teamwork and an element of wellbeing for staff. I never anticipated that the walk would create such a fantastic buzz around the unit and bring this sense of teamwork. The idea originally came from one of our midwives, Fiona Howard, at one of our monthly Wellbeing meetings, where we knew we wanted to achieve something big, with a lot of people and raise a lot of money. Hence the Cornish Miles Walk idea was born.
We will proudly be putting the money raised towards restarting the aromatherapy service which is something the staff really want to provide for our service users. This money will mean that we can offer our staff the training and resources they need to provide an aromatherapy service for the birthing people of Cornwall. This service will complement the options already in place for our birthing people and we know it will be greatly welcomed by our service users. There is a lot of work to do to ensure the safety and training is in place which is why we wanted to raise money towards offering this service.
We had great fun doing this challenge and it certainly was just that….a challenge. From Support Staff to a Consultant Anaesthetist, this was a real team effort and was watched on a daily basis by colleagues, with daily updates to see our progress.
Anne Cobell, one of our Delivery Suite Co-ordinators said “It was fun to be part of the team completing a big challenge and was very pleased I didn’t have to walk the whole thing! It was great to meet people along the way and promote our maternity unit whilst wearing the purple T-shirts and in my group matching tutus, which was a real conversation starter! Not sure who was more tired, me or the dog by the end, but we both enjoyed our fish and chip dinner!”
I want to thank every single member of the team that walked, ran, sweated, had tears of joy or pain as they looked up at the next large coastal hill to climb, and for taking part to raise an amazing amount of money. To those who helped plan this challenge which came from one simple idea, this wouldn’t have been possible without you. And to all those who sponsored us, bought raffle tickets, cheered us along, and walked with us, thank you. What a team we work with.”
Amy from The Royal Cornwall Hospitals Chairty “we cannot thank all the 59 participants enough for taking on this fantastic fundraising challenge enough, for every step they took, and for every pound raised. The amount raised smashed through the initial target of 2.5K, Ailsa then upped the target to an ambitious 4k mid-September when the initial was soon achieved, but the end total raised has been nothing short of magnificent, coupled with the buzzing spirit the team have gained! The total amount raised to is £10,289.63!”
“We thank you again for supporting us achieve our goal of raising money by walking Cornish miles for Cornish Maternity Services, in aid of the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Charity Maternity Fund.” Ailsa Gill.