Coventry Deputy Lord Mayor joins Caludon Centre Christmas Fayre
Staff at Caludon Centre in Coventry raised £1000 for Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust Charitable Funds at their Christmas Fayre on 12th December. The money will be earmarked to spend on enhancing patient experiences while they are in our mental health services.
Staff, patients and their families were all invited to take part in the festive fun. The Deputy Lord Mayor of Coventry, Cllr Roger Bailey and Deputy Lady Mayoress, Pauline Venables were delighted to be invited to the event. Cllr Bailey said:
It's wonderful to be invited to events like these, where we get to see the amazing work of our local NHS and meet people with real life experience of both working here and benefiting from the services provided. It's a unique opportunity to hear people's life stories first hand and show our support for everything the staff do.
As a surprise, former patient Todi came back for the Christmas Fayre with her friend, to sing carols for visitors. Todi said:
I wanted to come back to say thank you to the staff who cared for me here. Also, I wanted to encourage others to see that you can get your life back after mental illness, even though some days it feels like you never will. Christmas is a time that brings everyone together, and I'd never have met and sang with Paul [Galvin, Ward Manager], if I hadn't decided to do this to spread a bit of Christmas cheer.
Jess McClean, Team Secretary, was the main organiser of the event, supported by Matron, Amanda McIntosh. Jess said:
We've never ran a Christmas Fayre at Caludon before, but our Summer Fayre was such a hit with the patients and we raised valuable charitable funds there too, so thought it would be a great idea to do something at Christmas. Thank you to everyone who's contributed raffle and tombola prizes and cakes, plus their time to man the stalls.