Story
Whilst I was recovering from surgery and being cared for by the amazing team on Maple ward back in August, I felt a “thank you” was not enough to show my appreciation for all their hard work, dedication and smiles during the last several months. This had me thinking about all my colleagues in the Transport department and everywhere else in the Barts Trust and how lucky I am to work alongside such wonderful people. How could I thank each and every one of them? What could I do to let them know how proud I am to say I work for the Barts Trust? Could I shake their hands? No. Could I buy them all a drink? No. Buy them their Christmas lunch? No. I had been a DJ, karaoke host, and a quiz host in the past, so I thought maybe I could organize a free party for the staff at Newham hospital (where I am based) but due social distance this was also a NO.
Then it stuck me. Why don’t I try to organize an virtual quiz for all Barts Health employees? Just a few of hours where we can all have fun in the comfort of our homes and feel connected with other Barts colleagues that we may never meet, but are all very much part of the same wider team. I returned to work after 3 months of recovery and suggested my idea to the team back in the Patient Transport department and the answer was instant “YES, let’s do this! Let’s bring people together and lets raise some money for Barts charity, but most all have fun at the same time.” As this is a virtual quiz, there will not be any winners, but we will be providing mystery prizes to randomly selected colleagues and teams that donate to the Barts Charity Christmas Gift Appeal through our JustGiving page and take part. So please join us for some fun on Wednesday 16th December 2020. Who knows? You may even learn something too.
Event details:
Host - Erkan Mustafa (Patient Transport Manager, Actor & Television Presenter)
Date - Wednesday 16th December 2020
Time - 7.30pm – 9:30pm
Platform – Teams (link below)
Join Microsoft Teams Meeting
How it will work - Staff will be encouraged to donate to Barts Charity via the link below to take part. There will be 4 rounds (General knowledge, TV & Film, Christmas and Barts Health) with 10 questions. There will be a 5 minute break in between each round. Erkan will go through the answers after the last round. Following this, 10 randomly selected colleagues or teams will win a mystery prize.
Purpose - To have fun and raise some money for the Barts Charity’s Christmas Gift Appeal.
Contact - Please contact r.montanaro@nhs.net for more details.
About the Christmas Gift Appeal:
This Christmas, Barts Charity is asking our local community to do something special for the thousands of East Londoners who’ll be spending Christmas Day in a hospital bed.
2020 has been a particularly tough year for the staff and patients but the morale boost from the public support of their work is invaluable in keeping them going during this pandemic, especially as they face a difficult Christmas period. Christmas is always tough in hospitals and in the face of a second wave and to prevent the further spread of COVID-19, most patients will not be able to have visitors.
We need your help to buy Christmas gifts for patients who, sadly, will be spending the festive season away from their loved ones. From sick children to poorly pensioners, our patients need Christmas more than ever this year.
Barts Charity have launched our Christmas Gift Appeal to make sure that every patient in our hospitals has a gift to open on Christmas Day, and every ward has a Christmas Hamper for staff to thank our NHS heroes.