Caroline's Blog

And not just because rain makes the garden grow, as there was plenty of that at the RHS Tatton Garden Show, but because the garden designs were simply stunning.

For the seventh year running our charity exhibited in the show’s ‘Back to Back’ garden competition, winning a bronze medal along the way.

We take part in the show to raise awareness about our charity and encourage public donations. The theme of our garden this year was ‘Closer to home’ with the inspiration behind the design being the tranquil garden that will feature in our new Christie radiotherapy centre, currently being built in Oldham.

For the second year running we took the opportunity to host a lunch at the Tatton Brasserie for some of our key supporters. It’s a nice way to say thank-you to them for their fantastic support and bring them up to speed on our developments. I also met some new contacts at the lunch who very enthusiastic about the Christie and kindly want to help us.

Our guests got the opportunity to visit the Christie garden afterwards, whilst the car I was in got stuck in the mud.  I thought I was going to miss our monthly management board meeting, but we got the wheels in motion and went from flowers to figures.

I’ve always been a huge believer in the importance and value of networking.  It’s helped me throughout my career and continues to do so. I was at a Business Women’s Network Meeting last night where I had the privilege of meeting a wide range of highly successful and influential women from across the region. Impressive women who are really shining in the business world and also great company. 

It’s good to venture beyond the NHS, whether it’s into the commercial arena or other areas of the public sector.  I’m always fascinated to find out what we do differently and what we have in common – and learn from this. I spoke at a national Probation Services conference earlier that day which is a first for me.  The event was about preparing probation service leads for a type of foundation trust status and I was asked to describe the Christie story. We work in completely different areas of public service, but yet again, its all comes down to exceptional performance that is tailored to serve our ‘clients’ or ‘customers’, no matter who they are.

And without wanting to focus on our excellent performance, because as I always say, there is plenty more that we still need to do to improve services for our patients, I was delighted to receive a letter from the Prime Minister on the same day.  A warm and friendly letter which said how much he enjoyed his visit to the Christie on 3rd July and how impressed he was. 

Every relationship that I build is valued and brings value for our patients. And that’s what its all about.  

Some organisations wind down a little over the summer. Apart from maybe holiday companies and ice-cream parlours. And our charity.

Until I joined the Christie I had no idea quite how many sporting events, summer balls, fetes, hikes and countless other fundraising activites took place over the summer months.

Just take the last few days for example.  I attended a glamorous Bollywood Ball in Oldham on Saturday to raise money for our new radiotherapy centre. The organisers Andrea Mills and Suki Singh who run the Mills Singh Foundation are incredible people with huge hearts focused on helping the local people of Oldham. The next day was the Manchester to Blackpool bike ride, our charity's biggest sporting event of the year with 5,000 riders taking part in support of the Christie. And on Monday we had the official opening of our new radiopharmacy unit, which has been developed thanks to the generous donations of a number of our major donors. This state-of-the-art new unit will undertake pioneering radioimmunotherapy research and the event gave myself and others the opportunity to thank these generous people for their wonderful support. We also showed our guests around the construction site of the new £35m patient treatment centre which will transform treatment and care when it opens in 2010.

So yes, its full steam ahead for charity events - and at the same time us mums are gearing up for the school summer holidays. 

I dreamt I was lying on a beach on an secluded, exotic island last night soaking up the sun, and then two young voices shouted 'we're bored!'. Summer madness, but I wouldn't have it any other way !?

Does anyone know how to get emulsion paint out of a carpet ?

My daughter Bella spilt a large can on our new cream living room carpet yesterday.  When my husband reported the incident to me as I travelled back home from London he said that she was scared I was going to tell her off.  To which I replied that she needn’t worry – I was going to tell him off instead for letting a five-year old run around the room with a full can of beige emulsion.

Bella suggested that we paint the whole carpet beige this morning to cover it up.  And to be honest I stayed annoyed about the whole incident until I arrived at work and walked down our hospital corridor. Nothing puts things in perspective better than that. 

And I then said to myself, “there’s no need to cry over spilt emulsion”.

I met Gordon Brown today.

I invited him to visit when he rang me in June to say how pleased he was that we had got our £6.5 million charity money back.

At the time he said he would love to come, and was so complimentary about the Christie, but I never dreamt that this incredibly busy man who is running the country would turn up just a few weeks later.  And with the new health secretary Andy Burnham.

It was a real honour to show them around.  It’s funny when you’ve seen someone so many times on the TV and in newspapers to finally meet them face-to-face. Gordon Brown was a warm and friendly man. And Andy Burnham, who is one of our local MPs, visited our teenage cancer unit a few years and is a brilliant supporter.

We took our special guests to see our surgical robot and to our radiotherapy department where they saw a machine in action and heard about the new radiotherapy centres we are building in Oldham and Salford. They met patients and staff and were interested, enthusiastic and really positive. 

The prime minister said we were leading the world in some areas and it’s great that visits like this give us the change to promote what we’re doing in such a high-profile way – but visits like these are also a real boost for our staff and patients.  And not just those who get the opportunity to meet the VIPs.  Everyone here feels proud when we’re chosen for events like these. There’s a real buzz around the hospital today.

So yes, I met Gordon Brown today.  And it  was our wonderful staff and patients that brought him here.