Nurses to run 5k in PPE to fundraise for hospital equipment

Tuesday 15 February 2022

Nurses who work in the Critical Care Unit at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital will run five kilometres in full personal protective equipment (PPE) on Sunday to raise funds for equipment for their patients.

The nurses are hoping to raise awareness of the essential work of the Critical Care Unit and have set a fundraising target of £5,000.

Alissa Morvan came up with the idea for her and her colleagues. 

“We all worked extremely long hours over Christmas and it’s easy to lose motivation when you’re so exhausted - so I wanted to organise something to work towards and keep our spirits up as well as to help our patients,” said Ms Morvan.

Pictured: Critical Care nurses Alissa Morvan (left) and Aggie Ferenc (right).

The nurses taking part have drawn up a list of items they would like to purchase for patients.

“We try to do whatever we can to help keep our patients as comfortable as possible. These new products will help improve patients' experiences and give them little luxuries."

Items on the list include a pillow for comfort if patient needs to lie on their front and a specialised chair to allow nurses to take patients outside for fresh air.

Aggie Ferenc has been a Critical Care nurse for 26 years and said it was important to raise the profile of the unit.

“Fortunately, not everyone will spend time in intensive care, but that means that we are forgotten a lot of the time,” said Ms Ferenc.

“We are not trying to undermine the States. We are trying to raise some funds to help our patients and bring some public attention to the importance of intensive care treatment.

"We want to help the States by raising the money ourselves. We want to be visible, not forgotten.”

Pictured: Critical Care nurses have set a fundraising target of £5,000.

It is hoped the event will also help to raise public awareness of full PPE kit.

“Unless you are in the Intensive Care Unit, you won’t see us in our full PPE,” said Ms Ferenc.

“It can be quite daunting to see staff in full PPE - so it’s nice for people to get used to seeing us. We will be running in expired PPE that would not be able to be used at work.”

Ms Morvan said most of the nurses taking part run regularly in their own time.

“The 5k wouldn’t normally be too much of a challenge for us, but the challenge will be the PPE, especially the masks. We wear PPE for four hours at a time at work and by the end of a shift you feel like you have run a marathon,” she said.

The 5k run will start at Pembroke at 10:30 on Sunday 20 February and will finish at North Beach.

“We would love people to come out and support us along the route to keep us going,” said Ms Morvan. 

You can make donations by clicking HERE.