Exeter Golf Club donates £8,000 to RD&E cardiac fund

Mary Youlden
Authored by Mary Youlden
Posted Friday, May 13, 2016 - 10:52am

Patients at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital can now recline in comfort when having a scan of their heart thanks to a £4,000 donation from the Exeter Golf and Country Club.

The donation to the RD&E’s Cardiac Fund has been used to purchase a new ‘echo couch’ for patients to lie on when having an echocardiogram, a scan using sound waves to create images of the heart and surrounding blood vessels. The new couch replaces an older and worn-out version in one of the Cardiac Unit’s three echo suites on Taw Ward, and will significantly increase patients’ comfort. 

2015 Golf Team Captains John Fairman and Jackie Follett chose to support the RD&E’s Cardiac Fund as it was a cause close to both of their hearts and to many of their team members.

Jackie said: “As Captains we get to decide which charity we’d like to support for the year. We were really lucky that both John and I said we wanted to support a cardiac charity because of our own experiences. The Cardiac Team here saved my dad’s life on more than one occasion so it’s lovely to have been able to support them.”    

John added: “I had to have stents put in a couple of years back. If I hadn’t of got here when I did and had the treatment I wouldn’t be here to tell the story today. It’s surprising how common stents are these days, and I know that a lot of our team members have had similar treatment so the RD&E’s Cardiac Fund was a popular choice.”

The team raised funds throughout the year, including holding a Men’s and Ladies’ Pro-Am competition and a Captain’s Day for both teams.

John and Jackie recently visited the RD&E to take a look at the new echo couch in action and to hand over a cheque for a further £4,660, bringing their total donation to £8,660.

Senior Nurse for Cardiology Cathy Allman said: This is an overwhelming amount of money for us and we’d like to say a big thank you to the Golf and Country Club. We are so honored that they have chosen to support us in this way. The donation has enabled us to purchase an item which will make a significant improvement for our patients by making them more comfortable when having an echocardiogram. Its small things like this that really makes a big difference to a patient’s experience.”

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