Shetland MRI Scanner Appeal to receive £½ million grant

August 13th 2020

Shetland Charitable Trust has approved a one-off payment of £500,000 to Shetland Health Board Endowment Fund for its MRI Scanner Appeal.

Shetland MRI Scanner Appeal to receive £½ million grant

Shetland Charitable Trust has approved a one-off payment of £500,000 to Shetland Health Board Endowment Fund for its MRI Scanner Appeal.

The grant towards buying and installing the scanner in Lerwick will help the appeal reach its fundraising target of £1.65m.

The payment was agreed unanimously by trustees at a special meeting held today to consider a report recommending approval of the funding application, which was considered initially by the trust’s General Purposes Advisory Committee on 10^th July.

The scanner appeal was launched in July 2018 with the aim of buying, installing and running a prefabricated MRI unit on the site of the Gilbert Bain Hospital, saving patients having to travel to Aberdeen for the service.

MRI scanners can look at almost any part of the body and create pictures which help show up differences between healthy and unhealthy tissue.

It is hoped that the scanner will enhance the lives of people in Shetland by:

Reducing unnecessary patient travel, inconvenience and stress;
Making MRI diagnostic tests more readily available to islanders;
Improving patients’ health and reducing health inequalities;
Using the savings from reduced patient transport to provide the scanner service.

Announcing the grant approval, trust chairman Dr Andrew Cooper said: “The community in Shetland has shown clearly its support for this good cause so its very pleasing that the trust is able to provide a helping hand.

“The charitable trust exists to enhance the quality of life in Shetland and, clearly, looking after our health is fundamental to a good life. We hope that being able to diagnose treatable illness quickly and without patients having to leave the islands will be a real improvement here.”

As a charity, the trust is not allowed to contribute funds towards running costs but it can make a donation to the scanner appeal to help buy and install the equipment. NHS Shetland will cover the full costs of staffing and running the MRI service after the end of its first year.

The £500,000 grant will increase the trust’s maximum expenditure for 2020/21 to £10.5m.

Testimonials

The funding COPE Ltd receives from the Shetland Charitable Trust supports us in many ways. It allows us to develop and maintain a strong foundation to our core business and assists us to provide on-going employment skill development opportunities to people with disabilities living within Shetland. COPE Ltd highly values the support provided to our organisation by The Shetland Charitable Trust.

“The substantial grant made to us by Shetland Charitable Trust every year allows us to provide first-class facilities and dedicated staff to underpin sporting success among people of all ages and abilities in the islands.”

Having this core funding from the Charitable Trust means that we can use that money where we need it at any given time. It's multi-year funding which really takes the pressure off. To have the funding to keep going is really important as it is improving the lives of disabled folk in Shetland.

The funding that we get from the Charitable Trust pays for part of staff support and matching with other funders. Without local funders we wouldn't have national funders, and without either of those funders, we wouldn't be able to do this, so funding from the Shetland Charitable Trust is incredibly important.

The funding Shetland Arts gets from Shetland Charitable Trust is about making sure the organisation can thrive, access other funds, and deliver on behalf of the community of Shetland. Our funding from the Shetland Charitable Trust really helps us with our conversations with national funders because it shows that we're working on behalf of what the local objectives and priorities are.

The Access to Leisure scheme was introduced to allow folk to be able to get access to classes and activities for a lower cost. I feel that the SRT play a critical role in every community across Shetland and that's all down to the funding of the Shetland Charitable Trust that we're able to maintain that.

Unpaid carers do an amazing job looking after people 24/7 in their own homes, keeping them living at home safely, and they really need help to do that. Thanks to the funding from Shetland Charitable Trust, we've been able to employ a deputy manager, recruit more care attendants, and provide overnights. We're also really grateful for the funding because it means that everybody can get the service for free.