Fundraising

Being a charitable organisation which is run by volunteers means we need to rely upon donations and fundraising events throughout the year in order to provide our essential service to the patients and staff of Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

Stoke Mandeville Hospital Radio was formed in 1978 and (apart for a brief period of 3 months last year when we were off air due to our old studios being demolished) has been broadcasting continuously since then.
We are a registered charity and the membership and committee is made up of unpaid volunteers that give their time freely to provide a bedside entertainment system to the patients, visitors, medical staff and other employees on the Stoke Mandeville Hospital site.

As mentioned above our old studios were demolished last year to make way for new housing on the part of the Hospital site that was sold off to private enterprise. At the time we were offered temporary accommodation in Ward 4x, one of the old, now empty, wooden wards and we have been there since. Recently it was confirmed that towards the end of 2008 our current home would be demolished and that SMHR would be offered permanent accommodation in the newer parts of the hospital.

We are currently raising funds to help us move to our new premises and to update and replace aging equipment. We plan to do most of the general work ourselves but there are some jobs (carpentry, studio engineering and electrical works) where we don't have the in-house expertise and we will have to buy these skills in. The current cost of the project to dismantle from where we are now, to replace aging equipment and to create our new studios is just under £25,000.SMHR is completely self funded, we do discos, bucket shakes and help out in the town with events such as "Aylesbury on Sea", "Charter Day" and the annual "Christmas Carol Service" to raise the awareness of our charity and to tempt the good people that attend to part with some of their loose change.

Through our own efforts we have raised a few thousand pounds towards our move but SMHR has annual licences to pay for, music to buy and other ongoing costs that all take their toll of available funds, Our motto is "Putting the patients first" and our broadcast schedule reflects this. Each weekday our schedule includes a 2 hour request show that is made up of patient led music. We visit the wards prior to the show and gather requests from the bedside and then play these during the show. We do not want to be "off air" again for several months as we were last time so our plan is to carry on broadcasting from our old studios with the old equipment while our new studios are built. When we have built as much as we can we will then turn off the old, transfer any critical equipment not being replaced and turn on the new studios in record time so as not to disrupt our broadcast schedule too much.

If you are a member of a Charitable Trust, or know of someone that is, we would very much like to hear from you if you think you may be able to help us

We are always looking for people with fresh ideas to help with our fundaising. If you would like to join our fund raising efforts and become a fundraising volunteer, or if you are holding an event which we could join then please contact us via the e-mail link below.

Please click here: Fundraising