Tomorrow’s Dragon Board Festival at Fairhaven Lake, Lytham St Annes, organised by our Blue Skies Hospital Fund, reminds us how important fundraising for the NHS has always been.
Last year, Blue Skies donated £500,000 towards a new CT scanner at Blackpool Victoria Hospital thanks to the generosity of thousands of local people.
It’s was a gift of the latest medical equipment that follows a long tradition, such as this presentation of a baby monitor to the hospital in 1969 …
… and sponsored fundraising events have always been popular such as this one for an earlier scanner appeal in 1987 involving the then Ward 3 …
Fundraising was even more important in the days before the NHS was founded on 5 July 1948 when either you had to pay for your care or it was at least partly covered by hospital grants from the local authority or charity fundraising.
Here’s Mr E. Smith, president of the Burnley and District Association, presenting a cheque to Mr W. H. Smith, superintendent of Blackpool Victoria Hospital in 1938 at the association’s annual whist drive at Booth’s Cafe, although it seems lady secretary Mrs B. Riley is the only one enjoying herself …
… and having a jolly good time are a band of 11 nurses who make up The Astorians. The sheet music on the piano is Little White Lies, a popular song first recorded in 1930, and the nurses are raising money for the planned Victoria hospital at the then Whinney Heys Hall opened in 1936.
