Richard Odell's Story
Chair of the Appeals Committee
Richard's story starts whilst driving home from work in August 2002, when he was innocently involved in a very serious road accident. After being attended to by the Emergency services, he was rushed to Hospital with multiple injuries. He was then to spend ten weeks in Northampton General Hospital, for 5 of those weeks, he was in a critical condition in ITU, (the average stay, for a patient, in ITU is three days!). Without doubt, the team of Doctors and Nurses in the unit saved his life, so, in his own words "I will be forever in their debt".
Because of all the letters, cards and offerings of help, that his family received during those long, dark weeks in hospital, it was his wife's idea that they should try to direct all the energy, love and support, they had received to raise money as a token of their thanks. The Richard Odell ITU Appeal was set up and to date it has raised a staggering amount of money and continues to do so. The money raised so far has allowed the ITU to purchase a 'state of the art' critical care transport trolley, fitted with portable life saving equipment of the type needed to maintain full intensive care support during patient transfer. This device is ground breaking in the Midland region and sets a standard for all hospitals to follow.
What has become so apparent to Richard over the last four years is the huge level of support and enthusiasm of the wider communities. To quote him "Everybody is just so 'fired up' by the fact that we are raising money for the local hospital, everyone can relate to that. In addition, people like the idea that I am directing the funds - there have been no costs, no overheads, every penny goes into the 'kitty' AND they know where the money is going. The overriding fact of my appeal is that none of us knows if or when we may need the services of an Intensive Therapy Unit and it is for this reason the ground swell of support has been so huge".
As a direct result of Richard's ITU appeal's success, the Hospital Board's eyes have been opened and they decided to set up an Appeals Committee of the Charitable Fund and have asked Richard to be its chair. The purpose of this committee is to encourage, focus and direct any charitable donations that the Hospital receives. This way there is a direct contact for anybody who makes, or who is considering making, a donation. Such donations can then be targeted to a specific project, rather than attempting to fill a large void.
The charities objective is to encourage extra funds for the Hospital, which will provide much-needed amenities that would not normally be available from government funding. In so doing we hope to improve the hospital's facilities for patient and staff alike. It became very evident, with Richard's own appeal, how much the morale of the staff was boosted by knowing that extra, much needed, equipment was being provided, especially when such equipment was the envy of other hospitals.