The Archie Foundation’s £2 million fundraising campaign for Tayside Children’s Hospital marks a homecoming of sorts for the charity’s chief executive David Cunningham.
Former Dundee University Students Association president David, who met his wife in the city, said the ARCHIE cash would make an “incredible difference”.
He said: “What the £2 million we are raising will do is bring the new core suite into the Tayside Children’s Hospital. It will be just for children and they will immediately have significantly more capacity that they might otherwise have.
“The NHS has been asked for, and committed to £4 million, which would pay for quite a basic structure, not necessarily within Tayside Children’s Hospital.
“It would not necessarily meet the needs of the children. It might provide the capacity but not deal with any of the things that we know children tell us are important.
“It’s about creating an environment where families have everything they need, because if it is stressful for a child to have an operation, it is incredibly stressful for mum and dad.
“What we want to do from the minute the child arrives at the hospital to when they leave their bed and head for the operating theatre is make that as unscary as possible.
“There is an incredibly well-respected team at Tayside Children’s Hospital and it was them who came to ARCHIE and said: “We have a phenomenal core team and we want these extra things that other people have elsewhere.” David added: “People will write to us and tell us about their experience and I hear time and time again the difference that we made. It’s about things like supporting an entertainment programme or letting them Skype their family.
“Staff tell us they have been able to see more children as the children are calm and enjoying their time rather than being hesitant and withdrawn. We can genuinely treat more patients.”