Friends - in a league of their own!

Ace voluntary fund-raisers - the Ernest Gardiner Day Hospital's League of Friends - have come up trumps yet again.

At a special 'launching' ceremony at the Spirella Building on October 14, the League of Friends handed over the keys of a sparkling new £60,000 plus ambulance to Sheelagh Drury, the hospital's Matron and Stuart Kenny, Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation's Director General.

The new ambulance was especially designed and built in Leicester to suit the needs of the Day Hospital in Pearsall Close, off Pixmore Avenue in LGC. The money has been raised from various fund-raising events, from private donations and also from contribution boxes, which were generously displayed by local retailers.

League Committee member Trudi Cooper said everyone associated with the League of Friends was " very appreciative" of everyone who had helped with the fund-raising for the ambulance and over the last 20 years since the hospital was built.

Both Stuart Kenny and the Matron both heaped enormous praise on the League in their speeches. Mrs Drury spoke of the League's "tireless work over the years" and Mr Kenny said that "from day one, the support of the League of Friends " to the Day Hospital "has been crucial and invaluable." 

The ambulance, like its predecessor, will be a familiar sight around Letchworth and Baldock, as it collects and returns patients to their homes after a day's treatment.

The Heritage Foundation meets the revenue costs of the Hospital - some £300,000 in the financial year 2003/04, including employing the staff - it is the League of Friends that provides the vital and varied equipment.

On Saturday, October 30, the new ambulance will be on show in Leys Square for the public to inspect. Pictured: left, Jim Morley, Chairman of the League of Friends, with Hospital Matron Sheelagh Drury, centre, cutting the ribbon, and Stuart Kenny, right, with League of Friends fund-raisers in the background with the new ambulance.