To be held on Saturday 16 March from 5-10pm at the Cedar Bar & Kitchen, the fundraiser will generate essential funds for key hospital equipment.

Advertise with News of The Area today.
It’s worth it for your business.
Message us.
Phone us – (02) 4981 8882.
Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au

“Unfortunately, the Hospital has ageing equipment that needs to be replaced,” Waveney Ayscough, President of the United Hospital Auxiliary (UHA) at Bellingen Hospital told News Of The Area.

“Simple yet costly things like new patient beds and vital signs monitors need renewing.”

With well over a century to its presence as a bedrock for the community’s health and wellness needs, it’s hard to imagine many locals who don’t have a connection to Bellingen’s local hospital.

“The hospital means so much to the community because so many people have been helped there, be it day surgery, rehabilitation, palliative care and especially ED, where so many lives have been saved, including my young daughter,” said Waveney.

“For me, I have had a family member pass away there from terminal illness, I have had my daughter saved there, another daughter present with a broken arm and a bullrout sting and myself with a life-threatening infection after cancer surgery.

“Coffs Hospital is at least a 30-minute drive away, so lives have been saved just because it’s there.”

With just under two months to go before the fundraiser event, and many local businesses generously donating items for auction on the night, the community is being asked to put the date in their diary and sign up to support the cause.

The night will feature live entertainment, canapés, a grazing table, a standing main and dessert.

For more information on donations contact MNCLHD-BellingenEA@health.nsw.gov.au.

For tickets visit www.events.humanitix.com/bellinger-river-district-hospital-community-gala-event.

All money raised will go to Bellingen Hospital to purchase equipment.

Waveney said the Bellinger River UHA is also always looking for volunteers, “so that the cafe can finally open five days a week”.

Anyone interested can contact her at waveney46@hotmail.com.

The role of the United Hospital Auxiliary, a registered charity, is to assist the hospital.

“We work to the official mantra ‘To assist the welfare of patients and staff at all hospitals and healthcare centres within the state of New South Wales by providing all kinds of services to those hospitals and to assist in fundraising and advice to auxiliary, these operating in and about those hospitals and healthcare centres’,” said Waveney.

By Andrea FERRARI