THE HEAD of the Dorset County Hospital Charity is looking for support from the local community as he seeks to take it forward.

Andrew House, who has been in the post of head of fundraising for around three months, says he is looking to grow the charity and needs community support to make it happen.

His major focus is currently the Walk for Wards event on Sunday, July 5 that allows people to raise funds for their chosen ward at the Dorchester hospital.

However, Andrew is looking for the public to get behind the charity in a number of ways and help improve the experiences of patients visiting the hospital.

He said the starting people for him is making people aware of the hospital charity and what it can do.

Andrew explained that the funds raised for the charity go to specific funds that raise money for things that are above and beyond what the NHS provides, like new equipment or enhancing the environment of the hospital.

He said: “We would like people to know it’s not going into the pot to cover NHS costs.

“That’s not what we are about, we are about paying for everything above and beyond the NHS budget.

“We are looking for special items that the NHS can’t afford and we are also looking at enhancing the environment and helping on the research side with trials.”

Andrew said he looked forward to working with the community as he looked to generate more income for the charity over the next two or three years so it could do more things.

He said: “I feel there is very strong support for the hospital in the community here.

“We are looking at every sort of income stream including developing relationships with local businesses.”

Andrew said one local firm to already demonstrate its support was Poundbury based Dorset Cereals, which is supporting the Special Care Baby Unit.

He added: “Everybody in town either works in a company or know someone who does so if anybody would like to help and develop those links to support the hospital charity I would love to hear from them.”

Andrew said another way local people could support the charity was to organise their own fundraising events, for which he can provide literature and other support.

He said: “We certainly have benefited from and I’m sure we will continue to benefit from a lot of community events and we can provide support from that point of view.”

Andrew said he was also looking to secure major gifts from trusts, foundations and wealthy individuals.

He said: “I always see fundraising as a win-win situation because people that have funding ar looking for good projects, I have got some great projects coming up so we can put the two things together and everybody is happy.”

To contact Andrew call 01305 253470 or email andrew.house@dchft.nhs.uk