Thousands raised by Cargiant to help West London hospital's Birth Centre Appeal

Car dealership Cargiant has raised more than £13,000 towards a charity appeal to expand and remodel the birth centre in one of London's busiest maternity units.

The White City branch has been supporting Imperial College Healthcare Charity's £500,000 Birth Centre Appeal at Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea Hospital in Acton since April 2015, raising a total of £13,017 through staff completing the Tough Mudder challenge, bake sales and a variety of instore fundraising events.

The charity, which raises money for the five hospitals of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in West and North-West London, launched the appeal a year ago as the birth centre had not had any major refurbishment since opening in 2001 and demand had increased from 700 to more than 900 births in just 12 months.

Tony Mendes, managing director at Cargiant, said: “Our staff have been delighted to support such a worthy cause, especially as Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea is our local hospital. Being a part of something that will benefit the wider community is an important factor for us, and working alongside Imperial College Healthcare Charity has been a hugely positive experience.”

Thanks to the charity's fundraising efforts and supporters like Cargiant, the new centre is due to open in spring, with a new en suite room with birthing pool increasing the number of birthing rooms to six. A new reception area has also been created, the antenatal and postnatal area has been refurbished and en suite facilities have been added to the antenatal consultation room. The next stage of the work will see resuscitation cabinets with a supply of air being installed into every birth room.

Double beds are also being added to rooms so that parents get the chance to spend those crucial first hours with their new baby in comfort.

Josephine Watterson, fundraising and communications director at Imperial College Healthcare Charity, said: “It has been absolutely fantastic to have Cargiant's support for our Birth Centre Appeal and we're hugely grateful to the teams at the company who have put in a huge amount of effort to help us reach our fundraising target. Thanks to everyone's support, we are helping to make the facilities at Queen Charlotte's birth centre among the best in the country.”

-Notes to editors-

For more information about Imperial College Healthcare charity or the Birth Centre Appeal, contact the charity's communications manager Bevis Man on bevis.man@imperial.nhs.uk or call 0203 312 2061. Website: www.imperialcharity.org.uk Stay up to date with the charity's Twitter feed on @ImperialCharity.

Imperial College Healthcare Charity

Imperial College Healthcare Charity raises funds for five London hospitals within Imperial College

Healthcare NHS Trust: Charing Cross, Hammersmith, Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea, St Mary's and Western Eye hospitals. Since 2009, the charity has awarded over £13million in grants to over 300 pieces of clinical research and healthcare projects across the hospitals, all of which aim to improve patient healthcare.

www.imperialcharity.org.uk

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust provides acute and specialist health care for around a million people annually. We have five hospitals as well as community services across North West London. With Imperial

College London, we are a designated academic health science centre, improving care through rapid translation of research and excellence in education.