The Friends - giving Caterham Dene a helping hand
A brief history of the Friends
With the start of the NHS in July 1948 a local charity was founded called The League of Friends. The aim was (and still is!) to support and help our local hospital.
In 1966 Joan Morton helped formalise and improve the structure of The League of Friends. We were officially registered as a charity and a local membership was established, that continues to this day.
In 1980 Clerks Croft in Bletchingley, which was a day-care unit for mentally ill patients, was closed and services for geriatric patients were moved to Caterham Dene, with an extension added to the original hospital building.
The NHS decided to then provide a physiotherapy department at the hospital and asked the League of Friends for any help they could provide. Friends set up a project called ‘Be a brick - Buy a brick' encouraging local members to buy a £10 brick. Over four years we raised £90,000 which was a great deal of money at that time. The new department was opened in September 1986 by our local Member of Parliament and Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe.
In the early 1990s the NHS started closing many local hospitals preferring services to be provided at larger centralised hospitals, such as at East Surrey Hospital in Redhill. Our committee, then led by Eric Allen (Chair) and Pippa Swinstead (Secretary), had to fight throughout the 1990s for the continuance of The Dene - they did amazingly well to keep the hospital in existence and extend services.
A regular fundraising event through the years was the annual summer fete which was a great success, providing significant funds for the hospital. However, with the increasing size of Caterham Festival we decided to refocus fundraising activities into newer areas including the opening of the Caterham Dene Hospital Shop. The shop opened in 2017 and is situated in the reception area of the hospital.
In 2019 the charity’s name was changed from The League of Friends to The Friends of Caterham Dene Hospital.
The current committee has largely assembled over the last twenty years, with Jean Baker leading as Chair for fifteen years until handing over to Helen Denton in 2019, with John Hazell taking over the role in 2023.
Since 2010 The Friends of Caterham Dene Hospital have raised a staggering £500,000 for the hospital - all done by Volunteers!
