London Gatwick charity funding helps East Surrey Hospital
- A new summerhouse at East Surrey Hospital has opened for cancer patients with help from funding secured by a London Gatwick colleague
- The grant was issued by the VINCI UK Foundation, a charity that London Gatwick has contributed to for two years
- London Gatwick colleagues can sponsor local causes to receive funding, with the latest recipients just announced
A new outdoor space for cancer patients at East Surrey Hospital has opened, with help from funding secured by a London Gatwick colleague.
London Gatwick security officer, Scott Houghton, nominated SASH Charity (the charity for East Surrey Hospital and Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust) to receive funding from the VINCI UK Foundation to build the summerhouse at the MacMillan Cancer Centre.
London Gatwick contributes to the VINCI UK Foundation each year, which supports projects that promote social cohesion and fight exclusion. The projects are sponsored by colleagues as part of a wider VINCI network initiative to promote work in local communities.
The cancer centre at East Surrey Hospital provides a range of holistic support to people and their families from across Surrey and Sussex who are receiving cancer treatment. The new garden summerhouse will provide a quiet outdoor space away from a clinical setting to allow private conversations or quiet time in the garden.
The VINCI UK Foundation provided £5,000 of funding towards the summerhouse following Scott’s nomination.
Scott Houghton, Security Officer, London Gatwick said: “My son previously received treatment at East Surrey Hospital and since then I have supported SASH with fundraising and recently with the support grant from the VINCI UK Foundation.
“The centre provides a vital bridge between the clinical care provided in hospitals and supporting people in the community. The new summerhouse will help the cancer centre team to use the centre’s spaces more flexibly, and to provide support in a new environment, as well as directly increasing the access available to the community for less formal meetings and support groups.”
Andrew Bickerdike, Head of SASH Charity, said: “Here at London Gatwick’s local hospitals, we are incredibly grateful to Scott for nominating us for this grant. The links between the airport, the local hospitals and our local community are deep, and this support from the VINCI Foundation has made a really positive impact for people affected by cancer in our local area.”
London Gatwick contributed a further £20,000 to the VINCI UK Foundation for 2024 and the grants for the latest round of recipients have been announced. Crawley Film Initiative, a community film production company; Freeshop Crawley, a community hub for those facing poverty; Time4Children, free one-to-one emotional listening support for young children; and Learning Space, a children and young people's mental health charity based in Surrey will all receive funding from the foundation following bids from airport colleagues.
Melanie Wrightson, Stakeholder Engagement Manager, London Gatwick said: “Helping the community is part of what we do at London Gatwick. We are so pleased to offer a helping hand through the VINCI UK Foundation, in addition to the London Gatwick Foundation Fund, the Gatwick Airport Community Trust and numerous staff initiatives and fundraising activities every year.
“In 2023 London Gatwick donated more than £750,000 to local charities across Sussex, Surrey, Kent and beyond, the highest ever amount in a single year."
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For more information visit the VINCI UK Foundation website.
About SASH Charity
SASH Charity is the charity for Gatwick’s local hospitals, this includes East Surrey Hospital in Redhill, as well as services at Crawley and Horsham Hospitals and across Surrey & Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust. The charity raises money to enhance the care for people in hospital, and is funded entirely by donations. The cancer fund helps our local hospitals do more for people affected by cancer, in recent years, with the support of Gatwick Airport, this has included helping refurbish the chemotherapy suite in East Surrey Hospital, funding new equipment to enhance treatments, and now the new summerhouse in the garden of the East Surrey Macmillan Cancer Centre.
To find out more, contact sash.charity@nhs.net or visit www.sashcharity.org
With 41 million annual passengers, London Gatwick is the UK’s second largest and one of Europe’s top ten airports. It is a vital piece of national infrastructure that drives both the national and regional economies by generating £5.5 billion GVA and supporting over 76,000 jobs (2023). Almost 60 airlines fly from the airport to over 150 short-haul and more than 50 long-haul destinations. With a declared capacity of 55 movements an hour, London Gatwick is the most efficient single runway airport in the world.
The airport is located 28 miles south of the UK capital and is extremely well-connected, with more than a quarter of England’s population (15 million people) – including all of London – less than one hour away by road or rail. A six-year, £2 billion sustainable growth programme includes an ambitious plan to be a net zero airport by 2030 and to increase capacity by bringing the airport’s existing Northern Runway into routine use, alongside its Main Runway. Vinci Airports owns a 50.01% stake in the airport, with Global Infrastructure Partners managing the remaining 49.99%.
The world’s leading private airport operator, VINCI Airports operates more than 70 airports in 14 countries. Thanks to its expertise as a global integrator, VINCI Airports develops, finances, builds and manages airports by providing its investment capacity and its know-how in optimizing operational performance, modernizing infrastructure and managing their operations and environmental transition. VINCI Airports is the first airport operator to have committed to an international environmental strategy in 2016, to achieve the goal of net zero emissions across its entire network by 2050.
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