Hospital charity raffle prize giving at Tesco Twickenham

The West Middlesex University Hospital grand raffle prize giving was held at the Tesco Twickenham Extra yesterday (Wednesday 6 November). Joe Johnson, assistant director of patient and public involvement at the Trust won an iPad which was donated by Tesco.

The raffle raised £1,023.98 for the West Middlesex Charitable Fund which enables the hospital to buy specialist medical equipment, offer additional training and development opportunities to staff, as well as improving the patient environment.

Other prizes included a meal for two at the Hilton London Syon Park; tickets to Richmond Theatre; tickets to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; two cases of champagne; two gym memberships at Top Notch gym in Brentford; books donated by WHSmith; a blow dry at Scissor Sisters in the hospital and the DVD boxset of Grey’s Anatomy, series 1 – 8.

Before the prize giving, the hospital’s Research and Development team held a chocolate clinical trial, courtesy of Tesco Twickenham Extra, who donated the chocolate. Used to illustrate the principles of clinical trials, volunteers were taken through a similar process to an actual clinical trial, and given a bar of either milk or white chocolate to eat to see which was the most satisfying.

Dr Essam Ramhamadany, Assistant Director of Research and Development at the hospital, explained: “Clinical trials, also called clinical research, help us to improve treatments and healthcare for patients.West Middlesex is very active in this field, currently participating in 55 clinical research studies led by 23 consultants, and we are currently recruiting to 38 of these. In 2012/13 we recruited over 860 patients into National Institute for Health Research registered studies which are funded by the NIHR (National Institute of Health Research) North West London CLRN (Comprehensive Local Research Network) and NIHR CLAHRC (Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care).

"We are conducting research in many different areas including cancer, medicine, maternity, dermatology, paediatrics, radiology and anaesthetics. By taking part in clinical research you are helping to improve the NHS for future patients.”

For more information on clinical research at the hospital, visit:

www.west-middlesex-hospital.nhs.uk/get-involved/clinical-trials/ or if you are a current patient please do ask your consultant or nurse at the hospital.