The manager of Newcastle Building Society’s Durham branch has been behind the microphone as part of a special visit to the charity that he and his team are supporting this year.Paul Hudson, who runs the Society’s Elvet Bridge branch, swapped the cash desk for the mixing desk during a visit to Durham Hospitals Radio’s studios at the University Hospital of North Durham.
Durham Hospitals Radio was adopted as the Durham branch’s dedicated charity for the year at the start of 2014 as part of the Society’s ‘Cornerstone of the Community’ campaign, through which individual branches provide support to organisations and good causes in their local areas.
More than £800 was raised during 2014, which the Station has chosen to spend on four new computer screens which will enable presenters to use their broadcasting equipment more easily, and it was such a successful partnership that it was retained by the Durham branch team as their charity for 2015 as well.
Originally founded in the 1960s, Durham Hospitals Radio is staffed by volunteers and is entirely self-supporting. It broadcasts all day, every day to the patients of the University Hospital of North Durham, and is also now available for everyone to listen to via its www.dhradio.org.uk webpage.
Paul Hudson says: “Durham Hospitals Radio provides a fantastic service to countless local people and their families every single day, and it was a very popular choice as the branch’s dedicated charity.
“It was very interesting to get a look behind the scenes and to see a show being recorded – there’s a lot more to getting radio programmes together than you might think, and the screens that our fundraising has enables the station to buy are very much at the centre of proceedings.
“We’ve got plenty of exciting fundraising plans in place for the remainder of the year, and hope that we’ll be able to contribute even more to helping the DHR team get their programmes out onto the airwaves.”
Natalie Falkous, head of corporate social responsibility at the Newcastle, adds: “As a mutual organisation, our aim is to contribute to the communities in which we’re located, and the good causes that each branch has chosen to support through our Cornerstone campaign provide direct and often invaluable help, support and advice to great numbers of local people.”