Fundraising efforts for Aberdeen’s neonatal unit started over a century ago and this week’s Aberdonian gallery is all about the 1985 Special Nursery Appeal.
At the start of the 20th century, Aberdeen’s three primary hospitals were scattered across the city centre.
Healthcare was provided in cramped facilities and, according to a document published by Grampian Hospitals Art Trust, was considered “poor, inadequate and outdated”.
Recognising a need for improvement the professor of medical jurisprudence and chief medical officer of health for Aberdeen, Matthew Hay, created the ‘Joint Hospitals Scheme’.
The plan aimed to combine healthcare with medical education while also bringing the city’s primary hospitals – Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Royal Sick Children’s Hospital and Aberdeen Maternity Hospital – all into one location.
The plan was officially proposed at a meeting of the Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1920 and was implemented in 1923.
By 1925 thanks to fundraising efforts, the Royal Sick Children’s Hospital managed to purchase an area of land at Foresterhill. Aberdeen Town Council reserved the surrounding land for future developments once sufficient funds had been raised.
The children’s hospital was the first facility to open on the Foresterhill campus in 1929, followed by the new Royal Infirmary in 1936 and Aberdeen Maternity Hospital in 1937.
Friends of the Special Nursery is born
In 1984, following his death, Lord Astor of Hever donated £75,000 to help with the building of a new neonatal unit. The only condition to accessing the money was that the health board had to take care of running costs and upkeep.
The following year, parents who had relied on the help and expertise of Aberdeen Maternity Hospital staff came together and founded the fundraising group, Friends of the Special Nursery.
Starting with the goal of raising enough to buy a new incubator and create a parent-and-child room, they ended up raising £900,000 in two years, money which went towards the creation of the new neonatal unit.
Friends of the Special Nursery merged with Scottish children’s charity the Archie Foundation in 2016, and the group continues to support children who are in hospital and their families to this day.
Look at our gallery below to see north-east residents coming together to raise funds for Aberdeen’s neonatal unit.
Do you recognise any familiar faces?
Special Nursery Appeal – 1985
Fundraising efforts…
Efforts bear fruit…
