Grateful daughter of stroke patient raises £9,000 for St Luke’s Hospital in Harborough

Justine Baynes (in the silver and black gown) with her mother, Carole, to the right of her.

The grateful daughter of a stroke patient has raised £9,000 for St Luke’s Hospital in Market Harborough after completing a tough regional marathon.

Justine Baynes leapt into action to get behind superb staff at the cottage hospital on Leicester Road after her mum Carole Bowers suffered a stroke in February 2020.

She set out to take on a formidable new venture in a bid to become more connected to her mother as they both tackled daunting challenges.

Justine got to know the staff at St Luke’s well as Carole spent almost six weeks being treated at the hospital’s stroke unit.

And to pay a heartfelt thank you to them she decided she wanted to raise money for the hospital.

As a result brave Justine laced up her trainers and put in months of hard training before running the gruelling Rutland Marathon as well as staging a successful dinner and dance ball.

“All of the staff at St Luke’s were amazing both whilst caring for my mum and also with how kind they were to us all as her family.

“Buying a box of chocolates to say thank you didn’t seem enough.

“So I wanted to do something that would actually make a difference to their working lives,” said Justine.

“I have been blown away by the huge generosity of everyone who supported our fundraising - people have been incredibly generous.”

Saluting Justine, Nicola Utting, a Ward Sister at St Luke’s Hospital, said: “It’s just amazing what Justine has achieved for our hospital.

“As a team, it’s really important to us that our patients’ families feel supported and involved in their relatives care and discharge, so to have this recognised in this way is very special,” said Nicola.

“We would like to say a huge thank you to Justine for everything she has done for St Luke’s.

“And we are delighted to hear that her mum is doing so well with her stroke recovery.”

Carolyn Pascoe, the fundraising manager at Raising Health, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust’s charity, said: “We are really grateful for all of Justine’s hard work and determination in raising funds for St Luke’s Hospital.

“The generous donation will go towards improving our staff health and wellbeing offer at the hospital.”

If you would like to find out more about Justine’s story and to support her fundraising scheme, please visit her Just Giving webpage: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/justineandmarvarerunning