The NHS is a huge part of all of our lives and their dedicated staff do some truly amazing work. On a personal note, they have saved my front tooth when it was on the verge of falling out after being hit by a cricket ball, reset my dislocated ankle after a freak football injury, stitched-up my brow after an ice-skating accident, given everything they could to try and save my father and grandmother, delivered my son by emergency caesarean section, and trained and given me and my family careers in healthcare where we are privileged to help others.

Each region of the country has an NHS trust that runs it's services and most also have a Charity arm. Now working in Warwick at my own Practice I am I lucky enough to have come into contact with those who run the South Warwickshire Foundation Trust (SWFT) Charity.

As part of the NHS 75th Birthday, on Saturday 29th July 2023 the NHS South Warwickshire Foundation Trust is hosting a Warwick Market Takeover Day to showcase the NHS. We're delighted to be a part of it representing Dentistry and we'll being trying to raise as much as we can for them with a raffle and a small sponsored event with me doing the only thing I used to be any good at, which also coincides with the women's world cup - football.

For 90 Minutes I'll be doing as many keepy uppy's (where you keep a football off the ground by using any part of your body except your hands) as I can. As well as any donations, people can also pledge to give 1 penny for every time I keep the ball off the ground for the longest run of consecutive keepy uppy's I manage to complete in the time - so if in my longest run I only manage to string together 10 consecutive keepy uppy's, simply put 10p towards the cause, and if in my longest run I manage 500 then you can put £5.00 towards the cause.

Update:

I completed a longest run of 354 on July 29th but I wasn't able to complete my 90 minute challenge due to having to man our stall so I will be completing 90 minutes before our raffle draw on October 07th.

Here's some more about SWFT Charity:

"SWFT Charity funds enhancements beyond the NHS standard for Warwick, Leamington Spa, Stratford and Ellen Badger Hospital as well as out of hospital community services across the whole of Warwickshire.

With your help we can make our services the best that they can be for patients, families and carers when they need it most.

Any support that you are able to give to our charity will make such a difference and adds valuable support for developments, departments and wards across South Warwickshire and beyond."

If you are available on the 29th by any chance please do come by the Warwick Market. It promises to be a great day as the Warwick Folk Festival will be happening at the same time.... we'll be taking a video of how it all goes too which we'll make available to everyone so you get to have a laugh at my expense too!

If you'd like to participate in the 1p per keepy uppy pledge, please email us at info@pandental.com or message me on Facebook and we'll get in touch once the event is over to let you know how many I did so you can donate the corresponding amount.

Thank you all in advance for your support.