YEOVIL NEWS: BBC news legend Kate Adie says hello to a “giant polo mint”

FORMER BBC chief news correspondent Kate Adie has congratulated everyone on their fantastic fundraising work to provide Yeovil District Hospital with a second CT scanner.

The state-of-the-art machine was officially opened yesterday (Wednesday, July 1, 2015) by Ms Adie who said she was a fan of “modern hospitals” and was glad to be welcomed with open arms unlike some places abroad she experienced during her journalism career.

Ms Adie said she had visited hospitals in Sarajevo, Libya, India and Africa to report on “ghastly things.”

“They didn’t often like us going into their hospitals,” she said.

PHOTO - TOP: Kate Adie, third left, cuts the ribbon to officially open the new CT scanner room at Yeovil District Hospital.

PHOTO - RIGHT: Kate Adie takes a closer look at the "giant polo mint."

One anecdote she gave at the opening was on a trip to Albania where she went to a hospital and found a patient with a drip made out of a “Coca-Cola bottle and held up with string.”

“So I’m a huge fan of advances in medical equipment and it is fantastic that people have raised all this money for this new CT scanner,” she said. “Well done everyone.”

Patients, support groups and the wider community help to raise somewhere in the region of £150,000 in just six months.

“The NHS, God bless it, isn’t always flush with money so this fundraising is terrific,” said Ms Adie who then later described the CT scanner as looking like a “giant polo mint.”

The CT scanner will be in constant use by mainly stroke, cancer and trauma patients and the hospital’s chief executive Paul Mears said that it would allow them to get more and more people through the system.

The hospital would like to particularly thank the Yeovil Hospital Charity, Friends of Yeovil Hospital, Friends of South Petherton Hopital and the Kay Kendall Leukaemia Fund for their amazing support.

Chairman of the Friends of South Petherton Hospital, Helen Chaloner, said she was delighted that their group had raised £25,000 towards the project.

She said that there was a “strong connection” between the two hospitals for the CT scanner with South Petherton having its own stroke unit.

“It made perfect sense for us to get involved and make this donation,” she said. “It is now wonderful to see it up and running.”

Ann Bennett, chairman of the Yeovil League of Friends, said: “We’d like to thank everyone who supports our fundraising and make such generous donations because without them we wouldn’t be able to do anything.”

PHOTO - RIGHT: Kate Adie learns more about the CT scanner.

Also among those at the opening were Andrea Scott and Alison Garnett, of the Nutty Knitters group, who helped to raise £8,000 for the CT scanner appeal.

They held a variety of events such as a head shave, hair dying, the sale of knitted cancer ribbons and afternoon teas.

Head of fundraising for Yeovil Hospital Charity, James Kirton, added: “We would like to thank everyone that donated. It was an amazing campaign and as the hospital’s official charity, we saw incredible support from everyone in the community.”

The big break in Katie Adie’s reporting career was when she was the BBC’s duty reporter for the storming of the Iranian Embassy in London by the SAS following a siege in 1980. She went on to have a distinguished career with major assignments including the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, the Gulf War, the war in the former Yugoslavia and the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.

But she still remembers her roots and she told yesterday’s gathering at the CT scanner opening that she visited Yeovil Hospital about 40 years ago.

“I feel like a dinosaur as I came to Yeovil Hospital about 40 years ago," she said. "I came down to do some work while with BBC Bristol. I can’t really remember why – but I think it might have had something to do with the hospital radio.”

PHOTO - ABOVE: Kate Adie gets more info on how the CT scanner works.

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