May, 2019
Jenny Akins, a urology advanced nurse practitioner, is one of 7 people from the urology department at New Cross Hospital who is running the Birmingham 10k on Sunday 26 May.
Here she speaks about why they decided to take on this challenge as a team who raised money for The Urology Foundation (TUF).
A number of years ago one of our surgeons, Mr Peter Cooke and his team, received a preceptorship from TUF which saw he and his colleagues travel to Nashville, USA to receive expert training in robotic surgery.
Since Pete came back from this training seven years ago, we’ve completely transformed the way that urology care is provided at the hospital. It’s made such a difference to patient outcomes. Now, thanks to robotic surgery, patients are leaving our hospital after surgery much sooner than before and they’re recovering much faster and much better than before, too.
Every day we see the huge impact that TUF’s funding has had and so we decided, as a urology team, to take on a challenge to raise money for TUF, so that we could give something back.
Some of our team are completely new to running, whilst others, like Pete himself, has done lots of fitness work in the past. Meanwhile, I’ve already run a few 10k runs on the road and I’m looking to get as good a time as possible.
So we’re not a team of expert runners, but that hasn’t stopped us from picking up the challenge and giving something back. We’ve been encouraging each other as we go over emails and messages and it’s become a really good team-building experience. But none of this is going to stop us being competitive about who gets the best time!
I think every urology department that has benefited from similar funding from The Urology Foundation should be giving something back to them. They’ve helped us to improve the care we give to our patients, and that’s very valuable. If we continue to invest in them, they can continue to help us improve care.
But, as well as that, it also makes you feel really good to give something back like this. I’d encourage anyone to do it. Maybe as a team you only fancy 5k or 10k. Perhaps you’re a very fit team and want to run a half marathon together, or perhaps take part in a cycle ride. Whatever it is, it’s great for team building and it gives you a great feeling to know you’re giving back!
Jenny and the team (Mr Pete Cooke, Mr David Muthuveloe, Mr Ameet Gupta, Mr Harpal Matharoo, Mr Masilamani Selvan, Ms Maria Vogt) at New Cross Hospital have already raised over £1k, after originally targeting £500. If you’d like to contribute a few pounds towards their efforts, you can do that here.
If you’d like to get your urology team involved in fundraising for TUF, whether through a physical challenge or something like a bake sale or dinner fundraiser, email fundraising@theurologyfoundation.org
