A Southampton life-saving charity is to benefit from the fundraising power of Great Britain’s national mapping agency. Ordnance Survey has picked Southampton Hospital Charity’s Red & White Appeal as its official charity to support during the next 12 months.

Any money raised for the charity will go a long way to helping blood cancer patients, by supporting the charity’s objective to raise funds towards a new unit for haematology patients in Southampton. There is currently no dedicated facility for haematology patients who need day care treatments such as chemotherapy, blood transfusions, platelet transfusions and stem cell collections.

This year’s charity choice follows last year’s success when Ordnance Survey staff raised £20,000 for Marie Curie Cancer Care in Southampton, which paid for new nurses in the city.

Julie Sellers, a fundraising coordinator at Ordnance Survey, said: “Ordnance Survey is delighted to be supporting such a worthwhile Southampton charity. Our staff have always risen to the challenge in supporting local charities, and this is a fantastic opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of people suffering from blood disorders. We hope that the money we raise will help the charity’s aim to build a new unit for patients.

Southampton Hospital Charity’s Director Veryan Grant said, “We are thrilled that Ordnance Survey has picked the Red & White Appeal as its chosen charity for the next 12 months. We cannot raise the funds that we need without the fantastic support of local businesses and the community. With the help of employees at

Ordnance Survey and their friends and families, we can make a huge difference to the facilities provided for patients who regularly visit the hospital for life saving treatments.”

Fundraising began recently with a staff quiz raising £500. This will be match funded by Ordnance Survey, which is match-funding the first £2,000 raised by staff.

One in 25 of the population develop a blood disorder in their lifetime. A new state-of-the-art outpatient treatment centre will help people with leukaemia and other life threatening blood disorders from Southampton and those across Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Wiltshire, Dorset, West Sussex and the Channel Islands.

Due to a significant increase in the number of patients now receiving treatment, the clinics have become very overcrowded. Not only is this stressful for patients and nursing staff, but it would also be far better to keep haematology patients, who have low immune systems and can be prone to infection, away from other patient groups.

Further information can be found at the Red & White Appeal website. 

  The Red & White Appeal aims to raise funds to create a specially designed, dedicated unit for haematology patients receiving day case or outpatient care.      The unit is specifically in need of six new infusion pumps, at a cost of £1,500 each, to deliver fluids to patients in a controlled manner. We hope our fundraising efforts over the     coming year will enable us to purchase some (if not all) of these pumps for the new unit.

Ordnance Survey is Great Britain’s national mapping agency, providing the most accurate and up-to-date geographic data, relied on by government, business and individuals. 

Ordnance Survey and the OS Symbol are registered trademarks of Ordnance Survey.  

For more information from Ordnance Survey, please contact:

Rob Andrews – Head of Corporate Communications on 023 8005 5563 or robert.andrews@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

Melanie Osborne – Corporate Communications Manager on 023 8005 5062 or melanie.osborne@ordnancesurvey.co.uk