Two intensive care nurses have managed to raise over £10,500 – all while caring for NHS Grampian’s sickest Coronavirus patients.
Frontline medics Rachael Ironside and Claire McAvoy launched a fundraiser at the beginning of February “in an effort to give back to the community”.
Collecting money for local charity Instant Neighbour who are dedicated helping those experience food poverty.
The pair had initially aimed to walk the distance from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (ARI) to the North Pole.
However after hearing about their efforts, more than 110 ICU staff signed up to join them.
As a group they almost doubled the pairs initial target, walking, running and cycling a combined 6,009 miles.
A distance which would take those involved from the ward to the somewhat warmer climate of Rio De Janeiro, in Brazil.
Ms McAvoy said: “We can’t believe how generous members of the public and our colleagues in NHS Grampian have been in donating to our effort – we aimed to raise £1,000 and we’ve collected 10-times that, we’re really grateful.
“Just after Christmas and New Year, hospital admissions were rising again and morale was a little bit low and we wanted to give everyone something else to think about, so we came up with the idea of covering the distance to the North Pole.”
At the height of the second wave ARI’s intensive care unit was had to be expanded to four wards to deal with more than 130 positive covid patients.
Representing a welcomed break from an incredibly tough year at the hospital, Ms Ironside added: “We’ve ended up going much further – we could be doing the Samba rather than having a snowball fight.
“Instant Neighbour was so pleased when they found out we were doing this. They came back to us and were so lovely and excited – their response brought a tear to my eye.”
Having seen the devastation of coronavirus first hand, the pair were inspired to help those not just struggling with the disease but those worse off as a result of its ongoing effects in society.