Friends celebrate Golden Jubilee with appeal for new hospital
November 16th, 2009
A voluntary organisation that raises funds to benefit patients and staff at Altrincham General Hospital is celebrating its Golden Jubilee with an appeal for the whole of Altrincham to lend their support by helping fundraise for the town’s planned new hospital.
The League of Friends of Altrincham General Hospital was founded in August 1959 by local businessman Major Jack Rubin, hospital matron Mary Bane and health service treasurer Geoff Pearson and officially launched with a two-day charity fashion show at Stamford Hall which raised the then considerable sum of £2,500. It used the funds to benefit patients and staff at Altrincham’s five hospitals – Altrincham General Hospital, Altrincham Maternity Hospital, Denzell Hospital in Bowdon, St Anne’s Hospital in Bowdon and Southfield Maternity Hospital in Bowdon – by purchasing items that could not be funded by the hospitals themselves.
Fifty years on, the League of Friends is still going strong and has provided many thousands of pounds of equipment and other resources for hospital patients and staff in the town. It runs the popular tea bar in Altrincham General’s Outpatients department, holds an annual collection in town centre supermarkets and organises other fundraising events.
Now Chair Linda Mrozinski, founder member Mary Bane and the other League of Friends hope that their 50th anniversary, which coincides with plans for a new Altrincham General Hospital expected to open in 2012, will inspire the whole town to get involved.
Linda Mrozinski, Chair of the League of Friends of Altrincham General Hospital, said: “We are absolutely committed to ensuring Altrincham has a hospital to be proud of and doing everything we can to support it and benefit the patients and staff. A new hospital is planned for the town and we hope the people of Altrincham will show their support for it by helping us fundraise for equipment, furnishings and other facilities that will make a real difference to patients, visitors and staff.
“In the last year, for example, we have provided toys for the children’s clinics, portable TENS machines to help people in chronic pain, couches for the Outpatients waiting room, Monomouse magnifiers that help visually-impaired people to read documents, and a phlebotomy chair for people who are having blood samples taken.”
Former matron Mary Bane, 86, the only surviving founder member of the League of Friends from 1959, said she hoped their 50th anniversary would also encourage a new generation of volunteers to come forward.
Miss Bane, who was matron of Southfield Maternity Hospital in Bowdon for 24 years and matron of Altrincham Maternity Hospital for three years, said: “The League of Friends volunteers have now been raising money to benefit patients, visitors and staff at Altrincham hospitals for 50 years and I am extremely proud of what they have achieved.
“By sparing just a couple of hours of their time to help in the tea bar or take part in fundraising activities, the volunteers can make a real difference to local patients and it is an incredibly rewarding experience. I hope that our 50th anniversary and the plans for Altrincham’s new hospital will inspire even more people to help make a difference by becoming League of Friends volunteers.”
Note: The Pat Morris Memorial Fashion Show in aid of the League of Friends takes place on Friday 20th November from 6pm-9pm in Rackhams department store in Altrincham. Tickets cost £5 and all proceeds will go towards equipment for the new hospital.
Founder member Mary Bane:
When local businessman Major Jack Rubin, maternity hospital matron Mary Bane and health service treasurer Geoff Pearson founded the League of Friends of Altrincham’s hospitals in August 1959, little can they have expected that half a century later it would still be going strong.
Mary Bane is now the League’s only surviving founder member and, at 86, still plays an active role as a volunteer fundraiser and committee member.
Miss Bane, who lives in Timperley and never had a single day off sick in her 40-plus years as a nurse, spent most of her career working in Altrincham. Yet it could all have been so different. Originally from Feakle in County Clare, Ireland, Miss Bane only came to the North West to do her nursing training because her family couldn’t afford the course fees in Dublin’s hospitals and the Northern Irish ones didn’t employ Catholics.
She trained at Whiston Hospital in Liverpool but was almost kicked out after just six weeks for trying to supplement her meagre war rations by milking a cow in a nearby field. “I milked it into a jam jar but matron caught me and told me to pack my bags and get on the first boat home,” Miss Bane recalls. Thankfully, she was rescued by a doctor and night sister who recognised her potential and brought her back to the hospital.
At the time, Whiston was a military hospital caring for service personnel injured in World War II, including captured enemy soldiers. “I remember a very good-looking German soldier who refused a transfusion because we were giving him English blood,” remembers Miss Bane.
After qualifying first as a nurse and then as a midwife, Miss Bane came to Altrincham in 1950 to work at Southfield Maternity Hospital in Bowdon. Still only in her early twenties, she was appointed matron on Coronation Day 1952, prompting colleagues to affectionately nickname her ‘The Queen’. When Southfield closed in the mid-1970s, Miss Bane moved to Altrincham Maternity Hospital where she spent a further three years as matron. She moved to Trafford General (then called Park Hospital) and was Nursing Officer there until she retired in late 1983.
During her career, she was responsible for the safe delivery and care of numerous babies, including those of the actor Johnny Briggs (Coronation Street’s Mike Baldwin) and the former Manchester City player Mike Summerbee.
After dedicating her life to Altrincham’s health services, Miss Bane is enthusiastic about current plans for a new hospital in the town. “Altrincham General Hospital has provided a wonderful service for local people over the years,” she says, “but it is showing its age and isn’t really suitable for health services today. The new hospital should be much better and I hope a fresh generation of League of Friends supporters and volunteers will ensure that we can continue to benefit patients, visitors and staff there for many years to come.”
Ends
Contact:
Emer Scott, Head of Communications, 0161 746 2945 or emer.scott@trafford.nhs.uk
