A children’s cancer charity which has raised nearly £1million towards patient care and the rebuild and re-equipping of parts of Croydon’s Mayday Hospital has been forced to close its fund-raising shop in the reception area because of rising rents.
Mayday!: the charity shop in the main entrance at Croydon’s largest hospital closed last week
The Chartwell Cancer Trust’s shop at Croydon University Hospital closed last week, leaving volunteers saddened and angry that “greedy landlords” had forced them out.
The commercial areas at the NHS-run hospital are managed by a separate landlord.
According to a spokesperson for the NHS Trust today, they had been subsidising all or part of the charity’s shop rent until 2022. But when a co-operation arrangement over fund-raising for a children’s cancer unit came to an end that year, so did the rent subsidy.
The charity had handed over £750,000 from its Lily Pad Appeal which helped to pay for the hospital’s new Rainbow Unit.
Once the subsidy was removed, the Chartwell Cancer Trust could no longer afford the £25,000 per year rent that was being demanded.
It is nearly four years since Chartwell Cancer Trust’s Lily Pad Appeal hit its daunting fund-raising target to assist towards the development of a critical care unit and children’s cancer unit. The Rainbow Unit opened to its first patients in 2022.
The charity has since continued to provide hundreds of thousands of pounds in funding for equipment for the children’s unit, including play areas and study aids for young patients trying to keep up with their schooling while attending hospital appointments, as well as providing support and transport for families caring for young cancer patients.
The charity provided around 10% of the budgeted cost of Croydon University Hospital’s new unit, with some of the money raised coming from its reception area shop which, according to the hospital’s own website, “sells a range of goods, the proceeds of which help buy items to assist with patient care”.
Not any more it doesn’t.
Bagged up: the Chartwell Cancer Trust’s fund-raising efforts have done much for Croydon
According to one angry volunteer at the shop, the landlords “have upped the rent of a small shop to an amount we can no longer afford”.
They said, “Us volunteers, all customers (including staff from the hospital) and patients are against this, but there’s nothing we can do.
“The shop provides affordable equipment, helps patients as they can stretch their legs and find a book, clothes or something else that would be beneficial for them.
“Now, as far as we know, it’s going to be left empty.
“What a waste of space and how greedy of the landlords.
“I’ve enjoyed volunteering there since 2018 and to see it empty is going to be upsetting. At least the Rainbow Unit was made in Croydon University Hospital to help children with cancer.”
The Trust still operates fund-raising shops in Selsdon, Peckham, Tatsfield and Westerham.
“A huge part of our fundraising is through our charity shops,” the Chartwell Cancer Trust says on its website.
“The proceeds from your donations help us to improve facilities, fund clinical research and capital projects, enhance staff levels, as well as to deliver a range of support to young oncology patients and their families in our local communities.
“We are a small charity with a big commitment and every penny we raise is used where it is needed most.”
A Croydon Health Services NHS Trust spokesperson told Inside Croydon: “As a public service, our utmost priority is to ensure the efficient and effective use of NHS resources to deliver the best possible care for our patients.
“For the duration of the four-year partnership between the Trust and Chartwell Cancer Trust, the charity was offered a shop within the main entrance at Croydon University Hospital to support its fundraising efforts, paid for by the NHS.
“Following the end of the partnership in 2022, this space was offered to the charity to self-fund, to maintain its presence within the hospital. Sadly, they were unable to take on the financial costs.
“We remain incredibly grateful to Chartwell Cancer Trust and their fundraisers for their support and generous donations towards our paediatric oncology unit and would welcome the opportunity to work with them in the future to support appropriate projects.”
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
As featured on Google News Showcase
- Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
- Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as well as BBC London News and ITV London
ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
Thats capitalism!
I know the NHS trusts must make the best of their assets, but it is sad and annoying that this shop which did things to help patients and funded kit for the hospital, has to close. Just seems mean and very poor PR for the Trust.
Name em, shame em
Obvious question, why does part of an NHS owned premises have a private landlord and how much do they cream off that could be going strainght to the NHS? Maybe without the landlords markup the rent could be affordable, with the Trust still recieving rental income. Maybe an FOI?
I also note that privatised housekeeping staff at the hospital have been taking industrial action.
Contrast this with East Surrey Hospital where the staff are in-house on NHS T&Cs and where the on-site WH Smiths and Boots directly benefit the trust, no middleman creamimg off the top.
PFI.
The gift that keeps on taking
Short term business planning – Too many pledges sosome non thinking politicians hock the future for power in the present. Financing of public services costs no matter who runs them we the taxpayer always end up paying.
There is no P -hilantropism in PPI, PFI or any outsourcing of Public services. It does not matter if it is Railways, Water, Energy or the NHS.
What the Country requires is higher standards, honesty in costs and how to pay for them, and much greater efficiency and usage of public assets so that they benefit the communities they serve.
Governments really need to take decisions not on pure short term costs but longer term overall benefits of delivering said services.
In the meantime better to deal with and have agreements with Businesses that actually commit to partnerships with Charities and Volunteers that put value back into the areas they operate in. There are quite a lot of them out there, but very few in Councils or other Public services anymore were politics and Government administration processes dictates actions.
That £750k benefitted the Borough and young children. Yes the premises in the forecourt area is gone and subject to Landlord rents, But seriously cannot the Trusts facilities department not find a home in some other part of the Hospital even if temporary short term?
What about Viridor donating three or four converted shipping containers as an apology for releasng cancerous toxins that may affect younger generations adversely and the Trust popping them on site in none landlord owned land if there is any left?
Solutions can always be found if those doing the discussion actually talk.
And there may be the real issue with Croydon Public services.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Once upon a time Conservatives heaped praise on Voluntary Workers and lauded the efforts of the Third Sector to the point where Cameron seem to suggest they would have a greater influence on public services through his claims of a Big Society.
In practice after 14 years, the truth about their motives have been revealed.
They prefer every human action to be monetised and any acts of good faith and care to be discouraged. They even have a label for this now, as “Woke”.
They really have decimated the country after a disastrous decade and a half of complete subservience to the forces of the market. No matter how imperfect and rigged the market is. It has to be worshipped at all costs. Even to the point of undermining the voluntary sector.
Sad that a trust that did so much good is being targeted. Not sure how NHS backed property came to this either … but it has. Let’s hope they’re able to find a suitable place and start back again.
Thank Mr T Bliar for that.