This week sees a scaling back of the incredible support Watford Football Club has given to Raise and West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust during the COVID-19 emergency, but WFC and Watford General Hospital remain lifelong friends and neighbours and the NHS staff who have benefited from the club’s help are forever grateful.
For those that aren’t aware of the fact, the famous WFC Vicarage Road stadium is right next door to the hospital complex. Early on in the pandemic, WHHT asked the club for the use of some meeting rooms. The response was a big yes, which then quickly escalated to an offer of stadium facilities, manpower, storage space, free food and drink, logistics services, communications work, laundry services, meeting rooms, and so on.
Hundreds of staff were supported more than would have been possible without the generous support from WFC. Just to give a taste of the scale of the operation, one example of this generosity was the provision of some 40,000 meals, just part of what became known as The WHHT Sanctuary.
As the hospital is now more able to cope, and as WFC’s attention turns once again to the beautiful game, hundreds of hospital staff turned out on Friday to #ClapforTheClub and show their appreciation for their staff and volunteers. WFC support for the hospital and Raise continues on a smaller scale, and we know that a long term connection has been built that reflects the importance of both to our communities.
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Additional story and images (Watford Observer) are at https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/….
Additional story and images (BBC) are at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/…