Daughter raises fantastic sum in memory of father

A Shropshire woman has raised £1,153 to support heart and lung transplant patients at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) following a successful coffee morning with her friends and family.

Laura Richards was inspired to raise money for QEHB, one of only six solid-organ transplantation centres in the country, following her father’s double lung transplant at the hospital in 2015. The operation was a success, but he sadly passed away in May 2018.

Laura said: “I wanted to raise some money for the incredible hospital where dad was treated. I thought that it would be a great idea to organise an event to coincide with organ donation week.”

Laura organised a raffle and sold 1,000 tickets to her friends and family, with prizes including days out to watch horse and dog racing. Laura decided to draw the raffle at a coffee morning, attended by friends and family.

The event was a great success, and alongside the raffle tickets, raised £1,153 to provide added extras for patients at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. Laura said: “I was delighted to have been able to raise so much money to support other transplant patients at the hospital where dad received his transplant.”

Sophie Carroll, Senior Fundraiser at QEHB Charity, said: “Our thanks go to Laura and her friends and family for raising such a wonderful amount of money. The Charity provides ‘added extras’ for patients at the hospital, and the Charity is proud to support the incredible work of the transplantation teams here at QEHB.

“In 2018, the Charity raised £185,000, with the support of Heart Research UK, to bring Heart in a Box to the hospital. This machine keeps a donated heart alive outside of the body, increasing the amount of time that surgeons have to perform the transplant, which could increase the number of transplants that take place at the hospital by up to 50%.“

Thanks to fundraisers like Laura, the Charity will continue to provide world-class equipment like Heart in a Box to the hospital, helping to save more lives.”

Find out more about how QEHB Charity supports transplant patients here.