Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a wonderful festive season.

Welcome to our first funding newsletter of 2025. We are excited to kick off the year with some good news. We are launching a new education funding opportunity to support your professional growth and development. Details about this exciting initiative can be found below.

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Education Q4 Grant: £75 to £2,000

Application window open: Monday 13th January – Wednesday 12th February 2025

Applicants can apply for funding between £75 and £2,000 for education, learning and training opportunities that show a clear link to improving patient treatment and care. It should also be clear evident how the opportunity will deliver impact to a greater number of staff (rather than being limited to one individual).

Example Projects (previously funded):

Phlebotomy Team Development for Service Improvement - A series of tailored learning sessions for the Phlebotomy team to enhance their skills, boost morale, and ultimately improve patient care delivery.

LTHT Infection Summit - Delivery of an education event about antimicrobial stewardship and how LTHT staff can improve antimicrobial practice.

Find out more: Education Q4

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Training for Tattoo Machine Gives Hope to Breast Cancer Patients

Thanks to donations, we have funded training for a new breast tattoo practitioner and training for advanced techniques at the Breast Services Clinic located at St James Hospital. The team aims to enhance the patient experience by providing advanced nipple tattooing services to individuals who had undergone surgery for breast cancer.

Sue Callum, Advanced Clinical Practitioner on the unit said: “For many of our patients losing the breast impacts significantly on a woman's psychological well-being after undergoing surgery for breast cancer. Thanks to funding from Leeds Hospitals Charity, we’ve been able to train additional staff to tattoo an impression of a nipple or areole for those who have had reconstruction or breast altering surgery. The training gives great continuity to the service.”

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Our Funding:

So far this year staff have had the opportunity to apply for funding in ten different funding opportunities and the funding awarded has already begun to make a difference to patients, families and staff across Leeds Teaching Hospitals. We’re pleased to report that so far this year, we’ve awarded £1.68 million of funding for over 135 projects.

In Q3 we continued to support projects via spending plans, specific donation, strategic grants and via our Linked Charities:

Our panel will meet later this month to discuss applications made against our Q3 funding opportunities for Patient Experience and Research Seed Funding.  Applicants will be informed of the outcomes as soon as possible.

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Engagement Stalls:

We are thrilled with the success of our recent engagement sessions held across various hospital sites in November and December. These sessions provided a fantastic opportunity to  connect with staff across the Trust and share information about how we can collaborate with you on improving patient care.

We are grateful for the enthusiastic participation and look forward to implementing the suggestions and feedback so that we can continue to support patients, families and staff across Leeds Teaching Hospitals.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to making these sessions a resounding success!

We are excited to announce that more engagement stalls are planned for 2025, with our first sessions taking place in early February, including an opportunity to visit our new offices at the LGI. Further details on this visit will be emailed out the week before.

We will be hosting a stall for World Cancer Day in the Bexley Wing on the 4th February. We will also be hosting our Early Career Research Exhibition in the Bexley atrium w/c 17th February as part of the Trust’s Research and Innovation Week.

More information to follow soon.

Are you aware of any upcoming meetings or opportunities that could benefit from our attendance? We are always on the lookout for the chance to engage with staff. If you know of any opportunities, please share them with us. Your insights and suggestions are invaluable in helping us stay connected and informed. Let's work together to ensure we don't miss out on any chance to grow and support each other.

Please contact the Grants Team on 0113 539 7091 or email [email protected]

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Leeds Hospitals Charity is proud to fund a range of projects across Leeds Teaching Hospitals to make a real difference to patients, families, and staff.

Stay tuned for more updates and opportunities throughout the year!

If you have any questions, please contact the Grants Team on 0113 539 7091 or email [email protected]

Best wishes,

Becky, Charlotte, Alex, Jess & Andrea