APPEALS
Major Appeals
The Silver Star Maternity Fund has, over the last 30 years, raised nearly £1million. This has been used to buy clinical equipment – for example, eight ultrasound scanners, funded the much praised Family Rooms, now in constant use on Level 6, provided Midwifery Bursaries, supported research into pre-eclampsia, purchased 18 dropdown beds for Levels 5 & 6 and Observation Area, provided a new Gynae couch for Level 1, funded the refurbishment of staff restrooms on Level 5, a patient wellbeing room on Level 6 and Level 7 plus lots more.
Our work to improve patient and staff areas continues with a never ending list of items required to maintain the best care we can to Oxfordshire families.
In recent years we have been very grateful to have fantastic support, from so many supporters which makes a real difference to Maternity Services here in Oxfordshire.
Our aim in 2018 was to purchase and install 6 CTG monitors here on Level 6. The monitors help to detect problems with your unborn babies.
In January 2019 our patron, Clare Mackintosh, the international best-selling author very kindly donated £10,000 from her latest book A Cotswold Family Life, enabling us to order a further three monitors and in 2021 Rachel & Rob Wilcock, from Banbury raised over £5000 to buy another monitor in memory of their daughter Zoe (see fundraising stories).
We successfully raised over £40,000 from multiple donations and purchased 8 monitors and the network needed to run the machines.
We were the first in the world with a totally integrated computerised heart rate testing system for women not yet in labour, which was a magnificent achievement for the Silver Star Society and of course, thanks to our wonderful supporters.
During the Covid Pandemic we concentrated on what was required immediately to help our patients & staff cope with the extreme conditions that we were all facing.
We were able to provide 160 Blood Pressure monitors which enabled patients to self-monitor at home, keeping them safe. We provided our staff with refreshments to support them during their long shifts and refurbished staff areas so they could take rests in comfort.
In 2024 we funded a new scanner at a cost of £65,000 to allow more intensive and bespoke ultrasound surveillance of high-risk pregnancies, particularly those with maternal disease. It is anticipated that this could lead to safer pregnancy as judged by stillbirth rates. The capacity and workflow in the scan department means many women are having to make multiple journeys as scan and clinical appointments are not on the same day. We hope the new scanner will increase ultrasound capacity for women at high risk, allow easier access to scans for clinicians, and prevent multiple journeys for our patients.
Our fundraising continues throughout 2025 and we ask our supporters to continue fundraising so we can fund more monitoring equipment and refurbish a much needed patient waiting area and of course the new Silver Star/SSNAP Garden.
Please do get in touch if you want to fundraise for us or if you have/work for a company that would like to sponsor equipment or one of our projects.
Smaller Appeals
There are many items that are required that do not cost thousands of pounds such as:
Breast Pumps - £500
Sonic Aids- £500
Patient breastfeeding chairs - £600
Patient comfort packs - £20
Staff education days - £50
They all help to provide first class care to our patients. Every little helps - even raising £50 will make a difference.