Local Somerset business owners Jeremy and Julia Minchin are set to make the MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) Scanner campaign for Musgrove Park Hospital the focus of their company’s fund-raising efforts in 2018.
The current two MRI scanners at Musgrove Park Hospital are now over capacity and Love Musgrove, the Hospital’s official charity, has committed to raising the £1 million needed to buy a third one.
Accident-prone Jeremy Minchin, who co-owns Hippychick Ltd with his wife Julia, a baby and toddler business based in Bridgwater Somerset, is no stranger to the scanners at Musgrove. While paragliding in Nepal in 2011, Jeremy nearly lost his life in a catastrophic accident when his wing collapsed 120 feet above the ground and he fell onto rocky ground below. He was airlifted to Kathmandu and then Bangkok, before being brought back to Bristol and finally Taunton, where he resides with his family. The existing scanning equipment at Musgrove was critical for checking an aortic stent which had been implanted overseas, enabling Jeremy to keep on the road to a recovery which took over six months.
M
ore recently, Jeremy was thrown from and subsequently trampled on by a horse in November 2017. Believing he was just heavily bruised, he did not attend hospital immediately, but by the evening he was struggling to breathe and fainted repeatedly. Rushed to Musgrove, a full head chest and neck scan revealed that Jeremy had in fact cracked two ribs and had severely collapsed a lung. As a result of the information from the scan, an emergency chest drain was inserted and over 1.3 litres of blood (25% of normal blood in the body) was removed from the chest cavity. Despite these injuries, and with the expert care of the Musgrove team, Jeremy fully recovered within a matter weeks.
Magnus Mowat, Chairman of the Love Musgrove MRI scanner appeal, commented “I should like to thank the Minchins and Hippychick for their wonderful commitment to this cause. Everyone in Somerset is likely to need an MRI scan during their lifetime, or knows someone who will. The South West as a whole is very short of capacity, so the sooner we can bring this one to Musgrove, the better. We set out to raise a total of £1 million to buy the scanner by the end of April, and still have almost £400k to raise, so community initiatives such as this one will be essential to our success’’.
Julia Minchin, original founder of Hippychick, is delighted to be able to help raise funds for a cause that has twice saved her husband’s life. ‘’While Jeremy was out of action on both occasions, I was left quite literally holding the baby with Hippychick, still a fledgling business as well as three small children. I needed Jeremy to get back on his feet quickly and that is exactly what Musgrove Park Hospital helped him to do with their brilliant team and essential equipment’’.
Jeremy says that ‘’Given the amount of use I have given the current scanners at the hospital, it is only fair that I start contributing towards a third. Customers can donate voluntarily through our website at www.hippychick.com and all Hippychick staff, including myself, will be dreaming up a host of daredevil feats designed to boost the donations’’.
Julia is hoping that her husband may find a rather less controversial passion in 2018 and that the daredevil feats will include neither paragliding nor horse-riding! Founded in 1999, Hippychick has supported charitable and community causes and over the past 18 years has raised an incredible £55,000 for global, national and South West based charities.
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