Our chosen charity this year is the We Are Metropolitan campaign, which is part of the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospital ‘Your Trust’ charity. Cash raised will be used to fund research nurses, pharmacists and community spaces at the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (which we are proud to be building), which will be run by Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust.

The We Are Metropolitan campaign enables the Trust to develop important community outreach activities and research relevant to their patients. They see this as key to making this more than a hospital build project and to contribute to wider improvement in public health outcomes. The charity also supports vital services at many other hospitals and medical centres across Birmingham and Sandwell, such as Sandwell General Hospital, Rowley Regis Community Hospital, Leasowes Intermediate Care Centre and Birmingham Midland Eye Centre. These services are essential as the area is in the top 4% of the most deprived local authorities in England, where 29% of children and older people live in poverty, so the community spaces will really enrich the lives of the local community.