News

The SSCF has been helping Vascular Services throughout Sussex despite the difficulties of the past two years.

While limited, our achievements have included purchasing an ultrasound scanner for the new Vascular Department at Southlands Hospital in Shoreham.  We purchased and donated to Victoria Hospital in Lewes a column lift couch to enable the expansion of services to treat varicose veins. We continue to support NHS staff to improve their knowledge and skills in dealing with Vascular Patient Care by providing bursaries for 3 nurses to attend the South Bank University earlier this year.  We also encourage vascular staff to attend the Annual Vascular Society conference by contributing towards the cost of conference fees.

We have managed to do all of this despite fundraising activities having been curtailed and the demands facing our Committee members during the Covid crisis.

As you probably know, all of our Committee members are frontline NHS staff including a number of Consultant Surgeons.

We are looking forward with optimism to 2023 when we hope to resume and active programme of fundraising and ongoing support for Vascular Services throughout Sussex.

In the meantime, we wish all of our supporters a very Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.

In common with almost every other charity in the United Kingdom, we have put on hold all of our fund raising plans for 2020. The workload of the Vascular Consultants has decreased significantly as clinics have been cancelled and consultants are concentrating on phone consultations unless they feel they really need to see a patient.

If you are worried about any current vascular problem you have or a possible diagnosis please contact your GP. Although many GP practices are not holding face to face appointments, many are holding telephone or Facetime appointments.

The situation is rapidly changing so please respect the current advice from the NHS and the Government.

Limiting your interactions with others is a key message we are hearing from those Doctors working with Covid-19 patients and the Government. Please stay home and do not meet up with friends and family in person.

Washing your hands will kill the virus. Wash frequently with soap and water for at 20 seconds, making sure that you reach all parts of your hand, fingers and thumbs. This is a video which may help:

Keep Moving – Whilst it is not easy, try to do some exercise at home. Keeping mobile is important. There are many places on the internet that you can access home based exercise.

Until we can all meet again to continue our work for the Sussex Stroke & Circulation Fund, please keep safe and well.

Very Best wishes to all our supporters for a happy festive season and a joyful 2020

The Royal Sussex County Hospital is joining 3 other hospitals for a static bike race to raise funds for the SSCF and a national vascular charity.

The SSCF bike will be stationed in the Vascular Assessment Unit on Level 8 Tower in the Royal Sussex County Hospital between 2nd and 30th September and we are inviting anyone and everyone to pop up and cycle for a few minutes so we can achieve 956 MILES in the month – that’s the equivalent of cycling from Lands End to John O’Grotes.   Our competitors are the Manchester Vascular Centre, the Royal Oldham Hospital and the Wythenshawe Hospital.

We’ll be keeping a keen eye on their progress and hope to get to our target first as well as raising the most money for SSCF and the Circulation Foundation.

Please come along and cycle for us – even for just one or two minutes!

SSCF have recently purchased 2 new scanners for Vascular Services across Sussex. The latest acquisitions are slim and compact ultrasound systems with advanced image performance and easy-to-use features to enable excellent quality scanning on the move.

Hayward & Green Aviation held a 1960’s Themed Anniversary Party in July and all the money raised by the event was donated to the Sussex Stroke & Circulation Fund.  Their Chairman, David Green, has been a long time supporter of the Fund having “donated” his home for our annual cricket matches over a number of years.

For the 4th year running, Longhill School pupils have raised funds for SSCF by holding a Fun Run.  Our thanks go to Nick Rolf of the P.E. Department for organising this event.

You may have heard about the new General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) that comes into effect May 25th, 2018. To help comply with GDPR consent requirements, we will be asking recipients of our annual posted newsletter to contact us by email or text message to say “Yes” if they wish to remain on the mailing list.

Simon Ward, Consultant Vascular Scientist, asked SSCF for some new hand held doppler machines for nurse specialists, which could be configured to work with laptops to convey the results to the referrer more speedily.  The Committee agreed and the new equipment is already up and working in Brighton.

We have been able to recruit another new member to our Committee.  She is Louise Wilson, currently working as a Vascular Nurse Specialist based in Eastbourne.  Louise gratuated from the University of London in 1982 and was Ward Sister on the vascular unit at Charing Cross Hospital from 1988 to 1995.  During that time she helped establish the pioneering Vascular Nursing Course at Thames Valley University.  Louise was a founding member of the Society of Vascular Nurses and has served on their committee.  Louise has been the Vascular Nurse Specialist for East Sussex Hospitals sincer 1988 and has a special interest in the diabetic foot and contributes to the training of podiatrists at the University of Brighton.