A team of our staff, including consultants, nurses and other health professionals at our hospital, are set to take part in the Blickling Half Marathon in March to raise funds for our Robot Appeal.

The Spring half marathon, which takes place on Sunday 19 March, starts in front of the 17th Century Blicking Hall and follows a 13.1 mile course through the Norfolk countryside. It’s a community event which raises funds for local charities, and this year the James Paget Hospital is included, with funds raised by runners for our Charity going towards our Robot Appeal.

We recently launched a fundraising appeal to raise £1.6 million for a new surgical robot at the James Paget. The robot will allow for complex surgeries to be performed by our surgeons through small incisions and with more precision. This will benefit a number of specialities such as colorectal surgery, gynaecology, general surgery, upper gastrointestinal surgery, urology and our ear, nose and throat teams. The robot will also benefit our patients, allowing specialist surgery to be carried out closer to home, decreasing the length of stay in hospital, reducing post-operative complications and lowering readmission rates.

To provide a boost for our appeal a number of our doctors, nurses and others, including one of our Family Liaison Officers, will be taking part to raise funds and many of them will have their own fundraising pages in the next few weeks.

Mr Kamal Aryal, Consultant Lead Colorectal Surgeon, who is leading the Robotic Project and initiated this fund raising event, said; “It’s great to see enthusiasm from all participants towards this great cause. We will certainly see great benefits to our patients, staff and hospital with introduction of surgical robot.”

Each person taking part for a charity is asked to raise a minimum of £100 for the cause and there are a small number of charity places left so if you might be interested in signing up please visit; https://totalracetiming.co.uk/race/371

To enter yourself to support our charity please use the link above and then click ‘Login/Register to Enter Race’. You’ll then need to choose Charity Entry and James Paget Hospital Charity from drop-down menus to sign up for us.

If you would like to contribute to our Robot Appeal, or support the team’s half marathon efforts, please follow the link: https://www.jpaget-charity.org.uk/.../surgical-robot-appeal or contact our charity office at [email protected] or 01493 453348