£500,000

When the Gloucestershire Chest Fund was formed in 1991 the initial object was to raise £500,000 to be spent helping our local hospitals to fight chest diseases. It was hoped to achieve this in 10 years but that proved a little over ambitious. However we have now achieved just that figure. At a Trustees meeting on 13^th. September Treasurer Terry Adams was able to announce that we had now raised, and largely spent £501,000 in pursuit of our aims.

Where’s it all gone?

1.       £30, 000 to assist Professor Hugh Barr to develop his ‘Electronic Nose’ to provide early detection of pneumonia and tuberculosis. This equipment is now widely used.

2.       £28,000 to trial and evaluate the need for a pulmonary rehabilitation service in the county. This service, albeit in a modified for, is also in use.

3.       £22,500 on Exercise testing equipment for Cheltenham General Hospital. This equipment is invaluable for testing lung function activity under supervised exercise as opposed to at rest.

4.       £19,250 for a portable ultrasound scanner for Cheltenham General Hospital. The Consultant Chest Physicians  find this a great aid to diagnosis and invaluable when inserting chest drains

5.       £107,000 to fund Endobronchial Ultrasound equipment for Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. This ‘state of the art’ equipment facilitates early, accurate, non-invasive detection of lung cancer. When we started this campaign this service was available in only two locations in Great Britain. Now we have it in Gloucestershire.