Captain Sir Tom Moore's fundraising efforts help to transform Blackpool Victoria Hospital's staff rooms

The Vic's in-house charity Blue Skies Hospitals Fund used £180,000 of funding from NHS Charities Together to create "wobble rooms," wellbeing packs for staff, and mementos for bereaved families.

Wobble rooms are quiet spaces created for NHS staff who need to take a break to recuperate during their shifts, and staff rooms have also been revamped with new appliances, decor and furniture.

Late centenarian Captain Sir Tom Moore raised a staggering £32.8m for NHS Charities together during lockdown last year, by walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday.

Over 80 staff rooms in both clinical and administrative areas in hospitals across Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre have received new furnishings thanks to the funding.

Rebecca Rogers, a sister on the Urology unit at the Vic, said: "The old seats were all cracked and it felt like you were sitting on the floor. It didn’t have a staff room feel about it, but it’s lovely now."

Lara Turner, deputy manager of the Endoscope Decontamination Unit (EDU), added: "The staff were having to sit with their lunch on their laps and tripping up over each other. There’s a lot more room now, it’s more conversational. They can sit in here for their audits and write up their reports, so it’s a lot more useable now."

Kila Redfearn, head of fundraising for Blue Skies, explained how the nation's fundraising had helped to provide local medics with more comfortable staff areas.

"We’re completely indebted to our incredible local and national community for all they’ve done to raise money, so being able to directly pass that show of appreciation onto our NHS staff was crucial to us," she said.

"The new furnishings, however big or small, will really help make the staff rooms a more inviting place and hopefully serve as a little reminder of how we all pulled together during the pandemic."