Published on 24 June 2020
An appeal to help support front-line hospital staff during the coronavirus pandemic has been boosted by two £10,000 donations.
Sandwich-based pharmaceutical company Pfizer, and Newsstand in Whitstable, made the mammoth donations to East Kent Hospitals Charity’s Helping Your Hospitals appeal.
It takes the total donated to the appeal to £88,000, which will be used to provide additional ‘extras’ for hard-working staff to enhance and support their well-being at the hospitals.
Dee Neligan, Fundraising and Development Officer said: “We are delighted to have the support of Pfizer and Newsstand, as well as so many other local businesses.
“Our Helping Your Hospitals Appeal has enabled us to make a real difference to our incredible teams, and will ensure that we can continue to develop necessary wellbeing initiatives.
“These extraordinarily generous donations, together with the money raised by our fantastic communities, mean we can continue to look after our staff in the weeks and months to come. We are very grateful.”
Julian Thompson, site lead for Pfizer said: “Given the challenging times currently being faced by many organisations during the Coronavirus pandemic, including charity-based and health and social care support groups, Pfizer is reaching out to offer support within our local communities.
“We’d like to take this opportunity on behalf of all at Pfizer to say thank you for what you are doing as an organisation to support the healthcare and wellbeing of people during these difficult times.”
David Atkins, partner at JG Palmer LLP, Newsstand’s parent company, said: “As a local company it felt appropriate to try to help those in the area working under mental and physical stress in order to keep many of us that much safer.
“A donation also provided our working staff at Newsstand with a strong sense of purpose in what they have been doing, which was important.”
The appeal has been supported by numerous other local businesses, such as Shepherd Neame, NFU Mutual and Kent Cricket, as well a phenomenal response from communities across east Kent.
