RMT Accountants funds new St Oswald’s milk kitchen

Special facilities dedicated to preparing feeds for babies and young children are set to be built at St Oswald’s Children and Young Adults Service thanks to a donation from a north east accountancy firm.

RMT Accountants & Business Advisors are funding the creation of a new milk kitchen at St Oswald’s based in Gosforth, as part of an auction at the Hospice’s recent annual ball.

The donation will mean a bespoke milk kitchen area including a hand washing sink can be built at the Hospice, which will allow feeds to be made up in a safe and sterile environment.

Increasing numbers of both very young children and children needing specialist diets at St Oswald’s has brought about the need for the new milk kitchen.

Sally Moody, Clinical Care Lead at the Children and Young Adults Service, explains: “For the first five or six years we were open, we were able to make up any type of milk feed, but they were very few and far between.

“We now have many more babies and very young children staying with us who need their feeds made up, as well as an increasing number of children who are treated for their epilepsy with a special diet, and we have to prepare these feeds in a very specific environment, a task that has become increasingly challenging.”

Mike Pott, managing director at RMT, adds: “St Oswald’s makes a huge difference to the lives of so many families across the region who are often facing the most difficult of circumstances, and we are privileged to be able to support a charity that is also local to us.”

Families from across Tyne & Wear and Northumberland can benefit from St Oswald’s services, with no charge made for any of the services provided to ensure that hospice care is available to everyone.

The charity’s annual running costs amount to £9.5 million, of which £6.5 million must be raised through voluntary giving, and around £63,000 was raised at the annual ball, which this year had a Bollywood theme

Viv Williamson, Head of Fundraising at St Oswald’s, says: “We’re thrilled that RMT have pledged to buy the milk kitchen for our Children and Young Adults service, it’s going to make a huge difference to the children, staff and volunteers.

“Specialist equipment such as this can be expensive, so we were overwhelmed by the generosity of both RMT and everyone who attended our Bollywood Ball.  We rely on donations from the local community and companies such as RMT to help us to continue providing specialist care for adults, young people and children when they need it the most.”

For more information about St Oswald’s, please call 0191 285 0063 or visit www.stoswaldsuk.org