‘So lucky to be part of an organisation that values its staff’ - our team enjoys two days of events to say thank you
We’ve held two days of events including an afternoon tea and family fun day, to thank our staff for all their hard work during the pandemic – an evening party even included a band performance with our Chief Executive, Matthew Trainer, on keyboard.
The festivities kicked off with breakfast at Queen’s Hospital on Friday 22 July, followed by three sittings of brunch at King George Hospital. Activities then headed back to Queen’s Hospital for afternoon tea and an evening party before culminating with a family fun day at King George Hospital on Saturday 23 July.
More than 3,500 of our staff and relatives attended the events and Matthew called it, ‘wonderful, one of the best things I’ve been involved in.’
Matthew, who performed on stage on Friday night as part of band ‘The Pfizer Chiefs’, along with colleagues Alan (a founding member of ‘80s Scottish rock back Big Country), Taz, Kim, Adam and Warren, added: “Thanks to the staff who put in a huge amount of work to make it a success and to the sponsors who donated to help us run it.
“My biggest thanks go to you who work at our Trust. We’ve got lots to sort out together in the next few years, but what a cracking bunch of people to be doing it with.”
West Ham favourites Marlon Harewood and Carlton Cole even came along to brunch at King George Hospital and afternoon tea at Queen’s Hospital, where they chatted to staff and had their pictures taken with them.
Carlton said: “Thank you to BHRUT who invited us to have lunch and tea to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee, and a big thank you to all of the NHS staff for their hard work throughout the pandemic. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.”
Their visit was part of the club’s Players' Project which sees current and former players support key areas of community work.
Inviting loved ones along to our family fun day was a great way to include them in our thanks, especially as many were affected as colleagues worked overtime and did additional shifts while we dealt with Covid-19. There was a climbing wall, bouncy castle, face painting and fairground rides.