As part of the build up to the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital, staff from the hospital took to the streets of Liverpool to showcase plans for the new Royal Hospital and to promote its official charity, ‘R Charity’ and it’s £10 million appeal.

The city centre event saw the staff from R Charity take over the busiest streets throughout Liverpool town centre.

The money from the £10million appeal will be invested into the latest in high-technology equipment for diagnoses and treatments that will help save lives, and to create environments that provide fantastic comfort and conveniences for patients and families.

Some of the key areas looking to benefit from the £10 million appeal include:

• The Breast Unit- the money will enable the Trust to purchase 3 new mammography units, including 2 with the latest tomosynthesis technology, meaning patients can be diagnosed and treated at an earlier stage.

• Critical Care- patients and relatives are very vulnerable when needing critical care. R Charity will help to equip us with the latest technology, and furnish us to a high standard to improve the comfort and privacy of patients and relatives.

• Stroke Unit- getting stroke patients out of bed and back home to live a normal life as soon as possible is at the heart of all we do. The Appeal will fund a new telemetry monitoring system allowing us to improve patient safety and search for the causes of stroke, plus a suite of new specialist chairs which help severely disabled stroke patients sit out of bed and make the first steps towards recovery.

The developers of the new hospital, Carillion, have been working hard to raise funds for R Charity and their £10million Appeal, raising £56,000, so the day was also an opportunity to officially celebrate this amazing achievement.

In Williamson Square shoppers were invited to watch a video, which followed construction staff around the new development so that people could see for themselves the work that is being done to the interior of the new hospital.

Throughout the day, R Charity volunteers collected donations and there was even a ‘royal’ appearance from R Charity’s mascot Roy, who posed for photographs with members of the public.

A live performance from the choir from Sing Me Merseyside was led by Billy Hui and featured a guitar solo for their version of Bohemian Rhapsody. This was followed by a ‘royal’ flash mob performed by the extremely talented MD Productions which left everyone feeling really excited; some people from the crowd actually joined in!

Pauline Daniels, local comedienne came along to promote the Pink Party campaign and encourage local sign ups and Maggie May’s also provided their signature dish of ‘scouse’ to support the event.

Aimee Clare, senior fundraising officer for R Charity said:

“It was so wonderful to see so many come together to promote R Charity and our new hospital. R Charity is working really hard to raise £10 Million to invest into new life saving equipment, services and comforting environments for our new hospital, its patients and their families.

“So, to promote this and our need for support in our city centre was a great opportunity. We are extremely grateful to everyone involved. If you would like to donate, please text RCHA17 £5 to 70070”

Alison Valentine, community regeneration manager at Carillion added:

“We were delighted to be part of the day and to mark the charitable partnership with the presentation of our cheque for £56,000 towards the £10million appeal.

“We have hosted a number of community events to try and fundraise as much as possible for Royal Liverpool University Hospital R Charity’s £10million Appeal. We really enjoyed getting involved in the day and it gave us a great opportunity to chat to people about the new Royal Liverpool Hospital, and the facilities that patients are set to benefit from in the future.”

To view the video of MD’s Productions flash mob head over to Facebook page: www.facebook.com/royallpoolhosps

For more information on how you can support the £10m appeal visit www.rlbuht.nhs.uk/fundraising or you can contact the team on 0151 706 3172.