The pressure on our National Health Service continues to be relentless and our support of NHS Charities Together will help provide the extra support and services needed to care for staff, patients, and improve health in our communities. Their national reach through a network of over 230 NHS charities covering the UK means that NHS Charities Together can ensure funds go quickly where they are needed most. They listen to teams on the ground and invest in projects that help the NHS go further than what would otherwise be possible through standard Government funding alone. From counselling and the creation of outdoor spaces to improve staff and patient wellbeing, to new technology and specialist equipment to enhance patient care, to training and equipping thousands of emergency response volunteers to help save lives in local communities and researching long-term health conditions such as long-Covid and many other conditions.

A recent campaign they launched called #WithAllOurHearts aims to raise awareness of the enormous pressure NHS Staff are still under and encourage the public to get behind them once again, after a recent YouGov online survey indicated that 67% of NHS staff feel like the public have forgotten them.

I'm sure you will agree that the NHS has touched most of our lives in some way or other and that the dedication staff have shown during the pandemic has been nothing short of heroic. That's why we want to do our bit and show them that we still care.

On Tuesday 1st March we will be officially launching our charity partnership with a head-to-head Rowathon against our sister gym in Cwmbran. Each site will be tasked with rowing 3,500km to collectively row 7,000km to represent the number of local NHS staff, across Cardiff and Vale Health Board and Aneurin Bevan, who have lost colleagues because of Covid-19.