Hospital consultants and QVH colleagues get on their bike for Charity

Colleagues from Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (QVH) have teamed up to swap their scrubs and suits for cycling shorts and get on their bike to raise money for the QVH Charity.

The magnificent seven riders from the East Grinstead hospital are taking part in the Kent Classic 2024, which will see them tackle the 82km course on Sunday 27 October.

Starting and finishing at Lingfield Park Racecourse, the route will take the team down and along the county border of East Sussex and Kent, before navigating around Hever Castle.

The part-time cyclists come from clinical and corporate backgrounds, headed up by Ken Sneddon, Consultant Maxillofacial Surgeon and Clinical Director for Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery and Eyes with the rest of the team made up of James Lowell, Chief Executive; Alex Cash, Consultant Orthodontist; Ben Way, Consultant Plastic Surgeon; Ros Lunt, Bank Admin Assistant; David Rowsell, Advanced Theatre Practitioner; and Brian O’Toole, EPR Project Manager.

While the group head off into the south eastern hills they hope putting their pedal to the metal will inspire others’ to sponsor them and help raise money for QVH Charity.

Ken said: “The QVH Charity works tirelessly to support the hospital by providing a variety of things to make the patient experience better and help the clinicians by providing us with equipment to help us innovate. The least we can do in return is to support them.

“If we can do this by simply riding our bikes through some beautiful Kent countryside, and having people sponsor us to do so, then that’s a win win. So, if people can, please do support us. And let’s just hope the “weather Gods” smile on us.”

Just a £5 donation can help provide toys and entertainment to reduce anxiety in child patients, while larger donations go towards funding cutting edge medical equipment.

The cyclists have a JustGiving page which you can find here QVH team-Kent Classic 2024 – JustGiving. All sponsorship, no matter how big or small, will spur them on and enable QVH Charity to do more to support projects at the hospital supporting patients and staff.

Camilla Lane, Head of Fundraising and Voluntary Services, said: “We are so grateful to our fantastic colleagues for taking on this amazing challenge to help raise funds for our hospital charity.

“We are really proud to work closely together with our teams to help fund initiatives that make a real difference to patients who have suffered life changing injuries, but we cannot do it without the donations we receive. Whatever you can donate will help make a huge difference plus it will really help cheer our team on to that finish line. “

To find out more please contact Camilla at qvh.supportqvh@nhs.net