A DAY out at the races has raised close to £1,000 for the League of Friends of Musgrove Park Hospital.

The league held a collection at a festive season National Hunt meeting at Taunton Racecourse.

League chairman Nigel Handbury said: “It was the busiest meet of the year for the racecourse and a fantastic day for us.

“We are so grateful to people who gave so generously and to the course itself for allowing us to collect on the day.

“It means a lot to our charity.”

The league of friends, which is one of the oldest local charities, set up more than 65 years ago, is currently trying to raise about £1 million to fund and support a specialist robot to assist with spinal surgery in the hospital.

League president Clinton Rogers said: “This is a massive campaign for us and it is so important that we support spinal surgery at the hospital.

“This piece of kit is state of the art and Musgrove will be one of only a few hospitals in the UK to have it.”

The league was formed by the Rotary Club of Taunton in 1959 with the two main aims of promoting voluntary service in the hospital and raising funds to provide better equipment and facilities in addition to those provided by the NHS.

Other major projects funded by the league in recent years include:

  • Specialist electric beds at £294,000
  • Bracken Ward and birthing pool costing £300,000
  • A contribution to a third MRI scanner of £100,000
  • Interventional X-ray machine costing £641,000
  • 350 infusion pumps totalling £131,250

The league also accept many small bids spread throughout the hospital, ranging from items of furniture to dementia-friendly games for use on the wards.

It also has a shop in the hospital’s Duchess Building run by a management team supported by a group of about 100 volunteers.

The shop sells everything from coffee and sandwiches to sweets, newspapers, magazines, and toiletries and is open from 8.15 am to 6.30 pm Monday to Friday and 11 am to 4 pm on Saturdays.