Cancelled octogenarians' holiday benefits maternity unit

Yeovil District Hospital’s favourite fundraisers, Flo and Jim Essex MBE, had to cancel a winter holiday due to illness. But the octogenarians with a heart of gold turned disappointment into joy when they used the money to pay for a portable baby heart monitor.

They returned to the hospital this week to present a £500 cheque to pay for the monitor to Maternity Matron, Kelly Kent and Associate Director of Nursing and Midwifery, Neil Tomlin. 

Jim said: “We had saved the money up for the holiday. As we didn’t need it for the trip we wanted to do something for the babies – hopefully it will save lives.”

Only six weeks ago the couple presented three wheelchairs to the Emergency Department after raising money to pay for two and paying for the third themselves.

Flo, aged 81 and Jim, aged 85, are well known for their continuous fundraising efforts to raise money for the hospital. Over the last 20 years they have raised around £130k for Yeovil District Hospital and have even abseiled down the eight-storey tower block.