Crazy Hats Appeal donation  Date: 29.06.09

The charity raised the money for the items as part of its ongoing general fundraising campaign which has raised more than £800,000 for breast cancer care over the last seven years – £350,000 of which has been donated directly to Kettering General Hospital.

Crazy Hats Appeal founder and organiser Glennis Hooper said: “Our aim is to help the hospital to provide the very best facilities for local breast cancer patients.

“We are doing this by helping the hospital to purchase the very best equipment for the job and also by improving the overall environment for patients who visit the Treatment Centre and its Breast Unit.

“The public’s amazing support is helping us to do this in many different ways and this is an example of one of them.”

Treatment Centre Clinical Manager Diane Sheffield said: “A microscope was urgently needed in the Breast Unit to review slides of breast tissue during the breast meetings to help decisions on the best management for individual cases.”

“The two televisions that the Crazy Hats Appeal have bought have also improved our waiting room environment. They provide a welcome distraction to patients at a time when they may be quite nervous about coming for health care treatment.”

The Crazy Hats Appeal has helped the hospital equip its £18m Treatment Centre and Breast Unit to a standard beyond that which the NHS could provide.

It now has a patient café, more homely and less clinical consultation rooms, local artwork and high standard furnishings.

The Appeal has also provided additional essential medical equipment including theatre instruments and three gamma probes which are used for sentinel lymph node biopsies, an essential procedure during many operations for breast cancer treatment.

The charity is also involved in several other exciting new projects to buy specific pieces of equipment to support the Breast Unit at this hospital in the near future.