15/11/2015 – Scene Magazine – From the heart of LGBTQ+ Life

The Bear Patrol Hibernation Community Luncheon at the Old Ship Hotel on Sunday, October 26 raised £13.500 for the Sussex Beacon.

The event was hosted by Mysterry Shaw with entertainment provided by David Raven, Jennie Castell, Krissie Ducann, Jason Lee and Dave Hill who also conducted the auction whose star lot was a champagne reception and dinner for 28 in the Old Cellars at the Old Ship Hotel, which was won in an exciting bidding race by Gscene Magazine.

The next Hibernation event will be on Sunday, October 23, 2016 at the Old Ship Hotel, Kings Road, Brighton.

For more information, click here:

The annual Bear-Patrol Hibernation ‘Community’ Luncheon which took place at the Old Ship Hotel in October raised a massive final total of £13,500 profit for the Sussex Beacon.

The funding will enable The Beacon to tackle a number of urgent refurbishment projects within the Inpatient Unit, including installing 2 fully accessible baths in Rooms 5 and 10.

These rooms are specifically designed to support end of life care and accommodate patients with mobility difficulties. The Occupational Therapist (OT) has identified electric chair lifts which fit inside the bath and can be used by nursing staff or independently by the patient. They create a fully accessible bath, but also have the benefit of being portable, relatively affordable and able to fit any home bath. This means that the OT can work with patients to learn to use the bath independently at The Sussex Beacon and then patients can mirror this at home. In addition to fitting and plumbing, the installation will require some making good to tiling, flooring and paintwork.

The Sussex Beacon will then have two rooms which completely facilitate the additional nursing care required to support end of life care providing independence and dignity for the patient.

Funding will also be used to complete the refurbishment of the Clinical Room where medicines and specialist equipment is stored and is in constant use by the Beacon’s nursing and care team.

In the September Pride grants round, The Rainbow Fund donated £4,350 to replace and update nursing equipment for the room, including drip stands, storage trolleys and a drugs fridge.

Hibernation funding will allow refurbishment of the room, the repair and painting of the walls, installation of infection control flooring, new storage cupboards, worktops and sink unit allowing the Beacon to continue to provide high quality specialist nursing care in a modern environment and meet clinical and infection control standards.

Money raised will also be used to replace the kitchens ageing fridge and freezer.

To see images from the Hibernation Community Luncheon, click here: