Hospital staff enjoy pizzas thanks to Telford man’s £600 fundraiser

4 February 2021

Staff at Shropshire’s acute hospitals have enjoyed a delicious mid-week treat thanks to the fundraising effort of one man who was inspired by a Tweet he saw while settling down for a takeaway pizza.

Martyn Haynes from Telford raised an incredible £600 after posting on social media that he wanted to do send pizzas to the A&E teams at the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH).

His appeal even attracted one donation from the USA.

Martyn said he was inspired to do something when he decided to treat himself to a pizza delivery after a busy day working from home – and then saw a tweet from the Emergency Departments at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which runs PRH and RSH.

The tweet read: “As we come to the end of another tough week, a huge thank you and shout out to our teams. Not all heroes wear capes. Please continue to check in on each other and, when you can, rest and recharge.”

Martyn said: “I thought: ‘those guys have had a much more difficult week than I had, so let’s try and treat them to some pizza too’.

“I posted on Twitter and my Facebook account that it might be a nice idea to raise some cash to buy pizzas and posted a link for people to donate. By the time I managed to look at my email the next day the amount donated was in the hundreds of pounds.

“Over the next couple of days people continued to donate and we raised in excess of £600.

“Working with Dominos in Shrewsbury and Wellington we were able to supply 60 assorted pizzas for distribution around the teams at both hospital sites.

“I am very grateful to the people in Shropshire and beyond – one donation came all the way from California – who have helped to make this possible. We are all appreciative of the continued hard work and sacrifices of our NHS teams.

“Pizzas don’t quite do it justice to be honest, but even if this small token helps brighten up their day or comes as some small distraction, it will be worth it.”

Martyn worked with the Public Participation and Catering teams at SaTH to organise the pizza drop, which took place on Wednesday.

Betty Lodge, Emergency Department Head of Nursing, said: “Our teams are incredibly grateful to Martyn, and everyone who donated, for this wonderfully generous gesture. Colleagues are working incredibly hard in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and have been for the best part of a year. Acts of kindness like this really go a long way to help us keep going.”

Julia Clarke, Director of Corporate Services at SaTH, said: “This is such a generous act. Since the start of this pandemic, we have been overwhelmed by the generosity of people in our communities and for that to still continue almost 12 months later is incredible.”