CUPS OF KINDNESS (From Warrington Guardian)

CUPS OF KINDNESS

AN ENTHUSIASTIC team has raised a staggering £15,500 - by selling tea and chocolates!

They all belong to Halton Hospital Tea Bar Volunteers, a registered charity.

They provide a vital service to patients and visitors, selling refreshments at a tea bar and a ward trolley service.

All their profits are ploughed back into the hospital - as vital pieces of equipment, furnishings and extra items needed on wards or clinics.

They recently spent £5,000 on new blue chairs to refurbish the tea bar in the main reception.

A further £10,500 was donated to the rehabilitation unit for various pieces of equipment.

Altogether, the volunteers have raised £30,000 over the past two years.

They ask hospital chiefs for a shopping list of items that are needed.

The money has been used for all sorts of things ranging from furnishing a bereavement room, curtains and computers to a wendy house to keep children entertained while their parents wait for appointments.

"The list is endless," said secretary Joan McCarthy. "We started off in 1967 and since then have bought various items worth thousands of pounds."

The search is now on to find more volunteers - both men and women - to help run the tea bar and take a trolley round the wards.

Treasurer Gladys Tomlin became a volunteer after her husband died in 1991.

She said: "I really enjoy it. It gets me out and I feel as though I am giving something back."

Volunteers say they have made lots of friends and the work is very rewarding.

Patients who don't have many visitors welcome the opportunity to have a chat as volunteers take trolleys round the wards with sweets, crisps and minerals.

If you can spare a few hours, please contact volunteer co-ordinator Barbara Cooper at Halton Hospital. All volunteers have to be screened and police checked.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.