Staff from the Phlebotomy Department at Noble’s Hospital dedicated a bench on Friday 7th September, in the memory of their colleague Katie Edge, who worked at the hospital as a Phlebotomist.  Colleagues were deeply saddened when in 2010, aged 27, Katie unexpectedly died from a brain haemorrhage.  Thanks to the generosity of her colleagues at Noble’s Hospital through fund raising events, a bench has been placed in the Millennium Oakwood where, during the dedication, colleagues and friends shared their memories of Katie.
 
Lesley Jones, Phlebotomy Supervisor at the Blood Clinic, who was at the dedication and worked with Katie, said: “Katie will always be remembered as a beautiful, bubbly ray of sunshine that brightened up the day, and her colleagues in Blood Clinic wanted to have a memory of Katie for all to share.  The Millennium Oakwood is just across the road from Noble’s Hospital, and is a beautiful surrounding that will be there for generations to come.  Colleagues very much like the thought that they’ll be able to visit the wood and sit on the bench during lunchtimes.”
 
As well as raising money for a bench, other fundraising took place in Katie’s name by colleagues, friends and family, with donations to the Manx Stroke Foundation totalling over ?13,000.  The monies funded three specialist chairs for the Community Occupational Therapy Service which were presented earlier this year.  The chairs can be loaned to patients via the Department of Health’s Independent Living Centre, so that those whose stroke means that they cannot sit safely in a standard chair, aren’t confined to bed.
 
Photo caption - Pictured by the bench (left to right): Noreen Latta, Lesley Jones, Elaine Brown, Kathryn Nash, and Elaine Whelan