What is an NHS Charity?
NHS Charities provide extra care and support for NHS patients and staff, enabling health services to do more. We do not replace core funding, we enhance what is already available, providing additional support that prevents ill health and improves services for patients and staff.
We are the legal way the NHS receives, holds and spends charitable funds, and are dedicated to solely supporting the NHS. We exist for the benefit of current and future NHS patients and staff.
As the official charity of NHS Lothian, we are the only charity dedicated to supporting all of NHS Lothian’s work, all its staff and all the patients and families it cares for. We work in strategic partnership with our NHS Lothian colleagues and other partners to support ways to make the hospital environment a more welcoming place to be, make a patient’s stay more comfortable, fund additional equipment or technology that can help speed up recovery but is not part of core delivery, support the emotional and physical wellbeing of staff, and fund research that could have the potential to transform the way that care is delivered.
We are here to strengthen NHS Lothian’s ability to excel for the communities it serves. The support we provide, combined with our expertise and experience, helps create opportunities that enable NHS Lothian to foster innovation, explore ideas and transform healthcare. Together, we make healthcare better.
Find out more about some of the amazing projects we’ve supported
Restoring Confidence: Supporting Wig Services for Edinburgh Cancer Centre Patients
Many cancer patients undergoing treatment feel like they have lost their identity and sense of self at one of the most vulnerable times of their life.
Increasing Access to Life-Saving Clinical Trials in Lothian
Clinical trials save lives. Not only do they pioneer the medicines and treatments of tomorrow, they also bring real benefits today.
Finding Strength Together: A Peer Support Weekend at Crieff Hydro for Young People Living with Cancer
For young people living with cancer, life can feel isolating – friendships disrupted, routines turned upside down, and even a sense of who they are beyond their diagnosis becoming harder to hold onto
Keeping patients connected with board games
Simple classic board games such Chess, Draughts, Dominoes, Scrabble, Ludo and Snakes and Ladders are having a big impact on patients in the later stages of dementia.