Health / Fundraisers who helped deliver scanner for Shetland celebrated by NHS
FUNDRAISERS who raised over a million pounds to help NHS Shetland buy a state-of-the-art MRI scanner for the isles were celebrated at an event on Monday.
The health board toasted the “incredible fundraising achievement” of the Shetland community at the Gilbert Bain Hospital this week, three months after the scanner officially opened.
Almost every fundraiser across the isles for several years benefitted the appeal in some way, with people digging deep to support the campaign.
Everything from bake sales to birthdays raised cash for the scanner – with Harriet Middleton’s knitting perhaps the most famous fundraiser.
NHS endowment fund chairman Lincoln Carroll said he was “delighted” to be able to thank those that had raised significant amounts for the appeal.
“They can feel a sense of achievement in seeing the fruits of their labour come to fruition,” he said.
Families, businesses and organisations such as Shetland Charitable Trust – which helped the appeal reach its £1.65 million target – were shown overwhelmingly positive feedback from the first patients to use the scanner.
One described it as a “dream”, while another said it “felt like going to a spa”.
MRI modality lead Emma Caffery said there had been “bumps along the way”, but that in general “things have gone really well”.
Caffery, who moved from Birmingham to head up the MRI team in early May, described the fundraising effort as “amazing” to view from afar.
“What an incredible community Shetland has,” she said.
“Coming from my job in Birmingham, I don’t think we would have got it the same there.
“I followed the Facebook page and watched all the things people were doing, and I was thinking ‘that’s really crazy’.
“You end up now with a modern facility in a rural setting.”
The scanner is homed in what has been christened the Helyer MRI suite – with Helyer the Shetland word for a sea-cave which the tide flows in to.
That name was picked by the medical imaging team, who looked to select something which exemplified how soothing the whole process should be.
The arrival of the full-time scanner in May brought an end to patients having to travel to the mainland for scans.
Not only did that cost NHS Shetland expenses in travel costs – and hotel stays, if travel plans were disrupted – but it meant sometimes severely ill patients had to undergo the stress and anxiety of long journeys.
NHS nursing director Kathleen Carolan said patients now might only have to take a morning off work for a scan, instead of losing up to a day and a half.
She said Monday’s event was the health board’s opportunity to offer an “immense thank you to people across the community for supporting the appeal”.
“It’s also a chance to let people know that the scanner is now up and running,” she said.
“For us, it’s a career-defining moment. It’s such a big thing for us to have it here.”
NHS finance director Colin Marsland said the project had been seen as “a large challenge” when they set out with a £1.6 million fundraising target.
He said the Scottish Government had put money towards the new scanner – but added it was persuaded to do that “because of the huge amount that had been raised” by Shetlanders.
In addition an advance grant of £200,000 had also been pledged to the project from Shetland Community Benefit Fund, which takes in money from the Viking Energy wind farm to distribute to local projects.
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