GENEROUS NHS staff are not just collecting pounds and pennies for our campaign – they have also offered to volunteer their services.

The £200,000 Donate £1 for Dementia campaign was launched by The Bolton News and Bolton NHS Charitable Fund in June to pay for dementia-friendly facilities at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

The giant £1 coin – the campaign’s official logo – rolled into the NHS Business Service Authority’s north west processing centre in Ridgway House, Horwich.

Members of staff had the chance to take a ‘pound selfie’ with the coin and make a donation – with £75 raised on the day.

Prescription services team manager Abi Clark said: “In line with our corporate responsibilities, we have selected the Royal Bolton Hospital as our chosen charity for the year.

“This will enable us to both put something back into the local community, whilst at the same time, assisting our partners in providing front line patient care.

“Fundraising via our Ridgway Activities Committee has already begun after the Donate £1 for Dementia giant coin rolled into our division and colleagues were asked to take a selfie with it in return for a donation.

“Dementia is something close to colleagues’ hearts, with many here having first-hand family experience of the condition.

“We are also given support by way of providing essential volunteering – as each employee is allowed two days paid volunteering time per year.

“We are going to provide this over the year, encompassing colleagues’ skills such as gardening and art.

“A group of staff visited the Royal Bolton in July to look at the chaplain’s garden, the children’s ward and the soon-to-be-updated dementia-friendly ward.”

Our campaign will pay for special lighting equipment, dementia-friendly signs, memory prompting boxes, nostalgic pictures, special bathrooms and a 1960s-themed lounge.

Initially, complex care ward C4 will be made a dementia-friendly environment with the space a prototype for other wards when they come up for refurbishment.

To make a donation: go to boltonft.nhs.uk/get-involved/charitable-giving/ and click on the Virgin Money Giving logo, text DOFD15 with an amount, in £, to 70070 or send a cheque to payable to Bolton NHS Charitable Fund to Charitable Funds Department, Dowling House, Royal Bolton Hospital, Minerva Road, Bolton, BL4 0JR.

Groups, schools and businesses which would like the giant £1 to visit a fundraising event should email andy.lee@boltonft.nhs.uk