Special donation to ICU unit

A big thank you to Sam Pells, who paid a special visit to Pencarrow Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit, to generously donate £12,000 and to thank staff for the care that her late husband, Neville Pells, had received.

Neville had a surfing accident in 2013 and was admitted to Pencarrow, but he sadly lost his life four days later.

Sam and 21 other volunteers decided to complete the Three Peaks Challenge in his memory, which consists of climbing three mountains, Snowdon, in Wales, Scafell Pike, in England and Ben Nevis, in Scotland, in less than 24 hours, with a total distance of 42 kilometres and a total ascent of 9,800 feet.

Neville enjoyed all kinds of sporting tests and attempted the Three Peaks Challenge himself, however never managed to complete it in less than 24 hours. His wife felt it would be a fitting tribute to him to attempt this and also in the process raise money for Pencarrow, whom she felt had gone above and beyond in the care they extended, not only to Neville, but to herself.

This incredibly generous donation has paid for a MOTOmed cycle. This machine is a motorized movement therapy device for recumbent patients, which allows for a passive, assistive and active training of the legs and the arm/upper body muscles.

It can be used on patients who are asleep because of sedation to minimize the loss of muscle strength due to their illness and inability to move their arms and legs by themselves.

Dr Sam Waddy, Clinical Director of Intensive Care, said: “We are fantastically grateful to Sam Pells and the family and friends of Neville, who undertook such a tremendous effort in memory of Neville.

“This new equipment is going to be a great help to many of our patients, especially those who are on intensive care for a long period of time, recovering from traumatic injuries.  It has also been a real morale boost for the staff to hear from Sam herself how much the care they gave to Neville and the family meant to them at such a difficult time.”