On 22 October 2022 I will be flying out to Israel with a number of others to participate in a fund raising cycle trip. The fund raising is for the Nazareth Hospital EMMS. This will be my 3rd such trip since 2009 and as before the fund raising is for a specific project. In this instance the group participating are attempting to raise £60,000, to fund the expansion of the pastoral care team and its activities at the hospital. Pastoral care is a vital element of support for staff, patients and their families, with the Covid pandemic and its aftermath highlighting the need for this arm of care and rehabilitation to be extended. My target is to try and raise £2,000.

Nazareth Hospital EMMS is a unique healthcare facility working in a challenging and complicated society. The Nazareth Trust, which operates the hospital, is a UK based charity with its head office in Edinburgh. The hospital traces its beginnings to a doctor who left Edinburgh to set up a 4 bed hospital in Nazareth in 1861. At that time it was the only healthcare facility between Damascus & Beirut in the north and Jerusalem in the south, and as such is one of the oldest hospitals in the middle east. Today the Nazareth Hospital is a 200+ bed general hospital with Nazareth’s main A&E department working 24/7. It also provides intensive care, General & Orthopaedic surgery, paediatric and urology facilities, among others. Sitting alongside the work of the hospital, The Nazareth Trust operates a School of Nursing and other cultural programmes in the town.

The trust defines its purpose in the following terms: “Following the teaching and example of Jesus of Nazareth, the Trust, unique in its position in the Middle East, aims to reach out to the local population and to the wider world, irrespective of faith, political persuasion or tradition, through healthcare, education, proclamation and service.”

The cycle trip will start on the Mediterranean, at Tel Aviv, travel up to Jerusalem & Bethlehem, before descending through Jericho to the Jordan Valley. From there we will travel up to the Sea of Galilee and on up to finish at Nazareth. It will cover approximately 350 kilometres horizontally and many, many thousands of meters vertically. It is a very hilly country!

As you can probably discern, the hospital and its work is something close to my heart. I will be very grateful if you are able to support my fund raising in any way. The simplest way of doing so is to visit my JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/david-blackhurst11. Alternatively you can contact me directly, using the old fashioned ways of cash or cheques. If you are a UK taxpayer and able to Gift Aid your donation that would add 25% to any donation you make.

Thank you for reading this far!!