On Friday, 22nd March the Support the PRH Campaign Team were delighted to formally wind up the Support the Princess Royal Campaign with the distribution of the balance of the Campaign’s funds, with presentations of £2,072 to both the St Peters and St James Hospice and the Air Ambulance for Kent Surrey & Sussex. This follows an earlier donation of £1,000 to the Maternity Unit at the Princess Royal Hospital.

This represents the culmination of an extremely successful campaign to preserve maternity services and A&E services at the PRH.

The residents of Mid Sussex, and indeed the whole of West Sussex, now benefit from treatment at the combined centres of excellence at the PRH and Royal Sussex County Hospital.

Over two years, 2007 and 2008, of active public campaigning, the Campaign raised a fantastic total of £44, 500 from public and corporate donations.

Once the future of the maternity unit was secured in 2008, the Campaign activities ceased, but the funds were retained as a precaution in the event of any future threats to the PRH.

With the future of the PRH now assured, the Campaign Team could confidently honour its obligation to distribute any surplus funds to local health charities.

Sir Nicholas Soames MP said; “It is wonderful to be able to give back to two invaluable institutions in our community the surplus funds donated very generously by local people.  It was a fun occasion and I want to thank personally everyone involved in what was a hugely effective campaign.”

Notes

1. In 2005 the Support the PRH Campaign was established to campaign against proposals to move the maternity unit and the A&E to Brighton.
2. This was a non-political and apolitical campaign.
3. The Campaign was launched with the public in August 2007, with the Big Push, a great garden party centred on mothers pushing their prams with their new born, and a huge rally in Victoria Park in Haywards Heath
4. Attending the presentation on the 22nd March 2019 were-

The Rt Hon Sir Nicholas Soames MP – Member of Parliament for Mid Sussex
Dr George Findlay – Chief Medical Officer
Wendy Agate - Community Fundraising Manager at St Peter & St James Hospice
Julie Clare - Head of Corporate Relations at The Air Ambulance, Kent, Surrey, Sussex
Councillor Jonathan Ash-Edwards
Councillor Ginny Heard - Support the PRH Campaign
Councillor Anne Jones - Support the PRH Campaign
Jonathan Teasdale - Support the PRH Campaign
Tim French - Support the PRH Campaign
Patrick Shanahan – Treasurer of the Support the PRH Campaign
Councillor Claire Fussell – Sir Nicholas Soames’s Constituency Agent