Like many hospitals, the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford relied on the generosity of fundraisers to keep vital services running and to provide extras.

And it wasn’t only former patients and their families and friends who helped out – hospital staff played their part too.

Picture 1 was taken at the Infirmary entrance on a very wet Monday morning in 1985 when doctors and nurses stepped out on a sponsored walk.

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They were raising funds for the hospital’s new cranio-facial unit, part of the plastic surgery department where pioneering operations were being carried out.

The walkers and a few dogs were facing a 25-mile trip via Thrupp, Woodstock and Cassington.

Women’s Institute members from Chadlington, near Chipping Norton, in Picture 2, presented a hydraulic lift to the hospital in 1989.

Nurse Jill Dent explained: “It will be a great help in transporting patients from their bed to a chair or vice-versa, particularly those who can’t stand or are too heavy to lift manually.”

Sister Penny Joy is pictured demonstrating the lift to Women’s Institute members.

Members of the Doghouse Owners’ Club, a group of wives of motor racing drivers seen in Picture 3, handed over two infusion pumps to the cranio-facial unit in 1988. They had raised £2,800 at a ball.

Staff nurse Fiona Walker, second from left, is seen explaining how the pump worked to, left to right, Bette Hill, widow of top racing driver Graham Hill, Edna Lack, Liz Piper and Eva Grant.

Pupils at St Barnabas School in Jericho, Oxford, who often supported the hospital, made toys, cakes and sweets and sold them to their parents at a school market in 1977.

They spent the £22 they raised on construction kits and books for children in the Leopold surgical and medical wards at the hospital. Young patients are seen with the gifts in Picture 4.

Athlete David Brown, chairman of Radio Cherwell, the hospital broadcasting service, provided books and games for the hospital dayroom.

He had raised £235 by completing the London marathon in 1985 and in Picture 5, presents the money to Sister Maureen Ramsay and consultant surgeon Mike Poole.

Warehouseman Paul Morland, 23, and computer operator Paul Evans, 25, of Gainsborough Green, Abingdon, raised £2,000 after having their heads shaved.

It was one of a number of fundraising events they held in 1989 to thank the hospital for caring for a friend, who died after a road accident.

The money was to be spent on equipment for the intensive therapy unit to help people on life support machines.

The two men are seen in Picture 6 with their hairdressers, Wendy Hayes, left, and Lesley Hale.

As we have recalled, the Radcliffe Infirmary, between Woodstock Road and Walton Street, treated patients for nearly 250 years.

It opened on St Luke’ Day, October 18, 1770, taking its name from John Radcliffe, the Oxford graduate who became physician to three monarchs, Mary II, William II and Queen Anne.

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About the author 

Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here. 

He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.

His Trade and Tourism newsletter is released every Saturday morning. 

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