It’s always amazing when a charity is supported by community fundraising activities, but it is really quite something when one club consistently raises money for you for over 14 years!
As a Plymouth based charity, we at DDRC Healthcare run the Hyperbaric Medical Centre and have been supported by dive club members from branches across Devon and Cornwall who get together every June for the Kernow Dive Festival. The weekend festival of diving takes place in Penzance and 2017 was it’s 15th year. Divers from a whole host of local dive clubs, met with friends and families to dive, party and raise money for DDRC Healthcare.
The Kernow Federation of British Sub Aqua Clubs (BSAC) was formed 16 years ago to promote inter-branch communication, and to help each other with training. The Kernow Dive Festival each year takes this concept and turns it into an amazing inter branch 2 day fund raising event for DDRC Healthcare.
The amount raised at Kernow Dive Festival 2017 was a totally amazing £4,850, bringing the total of donations fundraised so far to over £30,000. Fantastic!
In recognition of this amazing achievement the Kernow Federation were invited to present their recent to donation cheque to us at our Hyperbaric Medical Centre in Plymouth.
Kernow Dive Festival 2017 cheque presentation
DDRC Healthcare’s CEO, Dr Gary Smerdon, said:
“It is absolutely amazing the support we have from the Kernow Federation and the amount of money they have raised is phenomenal. We are keen to support the diving community and offer training, advice and emergency support to this community. The Federation help us in spreading the word about what we do here and for that we are also very grateful.”
Donations from diving community fundraising has enabled us to purchase a state of the art heart monitor and the clinical team are currently looking at a new ventilator to ensure we have the highest quality equipment and facilities for our patients.
Dr Penny demonstrating cardiac monitor equipment bought by fundraisers