The Ticker Club is an association of ex-patients who have undergone some form of open-heart surgery or other cardiac procedures at the North West Heart Centre at Wythenshawe Hospital, part of the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT).
The Club, a wholly voluntary organisation founded in 1987, offers support throughout the North West to those who are experiencing heart or vascular problems, and to their families.
Club membership is open to all those who have undergone, or are about to undergo heart procedures, to their families, and to all who support the aims and objectives of the Club. The Club’s three main aims are:
Patient support
The Ticker Club offers practical advice and moral support to all new patients, regardless of membership, both before and after surgery. This is mainly carried out through near-daily visits to all the cardiac wards and cardiac outpatient clinics by our trained patient support visitors, and by speaking to patients and their families at the regular Friday pre-op meetings. Local visitors also attend consultants’ outreach clinics in Wigan, Tameside and Fairfield, Bury hospitals. All the Club’s visitors have had some form of Open Heart surgery themselves, and though these volunteers do not answer medical questions, they offer support and reassurance at a stressful time, sharing their own experience as patients.
Patient representation
The Ticker Club represents patients’ interests both within MFT Wythenshawe itself and in the wider context of regional NHS bodies, the British Heart Foundation (to which the Club is affiliated) and by contact with other patient support groups.
Fundraising
Since the Club was founded in 1987, members have raised over £1.3 million through fundraising events and activities such as golf days and prize draws, through members’ subscriptions and donations, and through legacies generously left in the wills of Club supporters. From a ‘wish list’ provided by the Hospital the Club continues to spend these funds on the purchase of vital equipment and facilities to ‘improve the patient experience’ at Wythenshawe Hospital’s North West Heart Centre.
To find out more about the work we do, please visit our website www.thetickerclub.co.uk