Teesside heart charity SCHF celebrates 20 years of service in style

A Teesside charity has celebrated 20 years of service in style.

Since it was founded in 1995, the South Cleveland Heart Fund (SCHF) has raised well over £1m to support the Cardiothoracic unit at James Cook University Hospital.

The charity has provided money for equipment, training and research not been available through NHS funding - the latest campaign is to raise £1m to fund the major upgrade of an MRI scanner so it can deliver state-of-the-art scanning and a full Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging (CMR) service.

Now, after 20 years of fundraising and countless lives helped, SCHF has celebrated its birthday at the Thornaby Sports and Leisure Club.

Amy Oxley, clinical matron at the Cardiothoracic unit at James Cook University Hospital, believes that the work of the SCHF is indispensable.

South Cleveland Heart Fund 20th Anniversary Bash, Thornaby. Ruth Shick (L) a 20 plus volunteer and Amy Oxley a clinical matron in cardiology

She said: “I think the SCHF is really important. It provides additional support that isn’t normally funded.

“That extra money keeps us competitive with the other regions meaning we can attract the consultants with the best skills.

“The new scanner would put us at the leading edge of cardiac services nationwide.”

Staff nurse Elaine Lawrence agreed.

She said: “The SCHF gets us the added extras that we need to make the patients’ journeys that bit better.

“The scanner would speed up the care we give. If we had it on our doorstep it would be better for everyone in the area.”

James Cook University Hospital

On the night, energetic indie-rock outfit Here’s Jonny made sure the night went off with a bang and delighted the packed function room.

The SCHF is made up entirely of a committee of volunteers who meet regularly, chaired by Dr Adrian Davies, the retired consultant cardiologist who set up the Cardiothoracic unit at James Cook University Hospital.

Last year the Cardiothoracic Unit at James Cook carried out around 3,000 angiograms, 1,700 Coronary Angioplasty interventions, 60 TAVIs (Transcutaneous Aortic Valve Implantation) over 300 electrical Ablations, and 900 implantable devices, as well as 1,300 open heart operations, and over 500 lung operations.

Tests on patients using equipment funded by SCHF included 15,245 echocardiograms and 16,611 ECGs.

The charity is audited by and reports to the Charities Commission annually.