Bristol & Weston Hospitals Charity sits at the heart of one of the busiest NHS Trusts in the country: University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust. As the official charity for all ten hospitals in the Trust, the charity does great things with multi-million pound investments back into the hospitals. Working alongside NHS staff, the charity enhances the patient experience with better environments, funds the latest technology, supports innovative treatments and helps fund internationally important medical research.

The Challenge

The Great Exmoor Ride is a challenging 66-mile bike ride from Taunton to Blue Anchor, near Minehead, via Exmoor. At its heart, its a truly spectacular and challenging route that's designed to appeal to a wide range of riders, from anyone with a reasonable degree of fitness (and/or a lot of determination!) to experienced, regular cyclists. Ultimately, it's all about having a great day out on a bike, powered by raising funds to support our patients, their families and our amazing NHS staff.

The Cause

By taking on the Great Exmoor Ride and fundraising for Bristol & Weston Hospitals Charity, you’ll be helping the 10 hospitals that we support in the Bristol and Weston area. Every year more than 22,600 patients from Taunton and Exmoor visit our hospitals.

• That's 4,800 inpatients, 13,100 outpatients and 4,700 emergency department visits.

• It's than 2,500 appointments at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.

• And it's more than 1,600 appointments at the Bristol Heart Institute.

The Difference You’ll Make

We’re committed to going above and beyond for our patients, their families, and our amazing NHS staff and here are just a few examples of the amazing projects we’ve been able to fund in these hospitals as a result of fundraisers taking on events like the Great Exmoor Ride:

• A new children’s research centre at the heart of Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, the South West’s leading specialist hospital for children. This ground-breaking facility has transformed treatments to improve countless lives today, tomorrow and well into the future. It means staff can take on 30% more research projects every year.

• A scalp cooler at Weston General Hospital for patients undergoing chemotherapy. One of the side effects of chemo is excessive hair loss, but this scalp cooler helps to minimise the loss. In turn this can reduce the distress to patients that are already facing a challenging time.

• A new echocardiography facility for the Bristol Heart Institute. Staff at the cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) and the coronary care unit (CCU) are delighted with the new unit, which is only a few metres away from both wards. Previously up to 10 patients a day were making the hour-long trip to the old facility. The new facility means less scans are cancelled and poorly patients spend less time away from the ward.