To celebrate Children in Need’s national day of fundraising, both of our Centres of Excellence at Blackheath Lane and in Shrewsbury made use of their precious break-time last Friday; sharing homemade cakes, raising donations and dressing up as their favourite rock or pop stars.
These were the only places in the world you were likely to find Bruce Springsteen, Ozzy Osbourne, David Bowie and gluten-free muffins in the same room.
The day began with at 10am, with hot drinks and cakes at Blackheath Lane as well as music provided by the students’ union and university chaplain Mick Williams. Lecturers also challenged students to pick them out from a range of baby pictures: always harder than you think, especially when the lecturer in question is disguised as Boy George.
Meanwhile, students at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital were up against each other in a Bake-Off competition, which meant plenty to eat later on.
Mick and the students’ union took their music to Shrewsbury just in time for the lunch break after midday, where we got to see the brilliant costumes from staff and students alike; Kiss, Black-Eyed Peas and even a reunited Axel Rose and Slash made an appearance.
To find out what hard work went into the event at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital campus, we had a chat with a key architect, lecturer Jayne Evans.
“We let the students lead it. We told them that we wanted to do this for Children in Need, as an annual thing, but we want it be their day,” she told us.
“To start with we put it out to the September 16 cohort and they came back with a list of things to do, like the baby pictures and the cupcake competition.
“A lot of members of staff have helped as well, particularly the ones who provided baby photos.
“Just to name a few names, thanks to all the lecturers who allowed the students to come in to be taught in such ridiculous outfits; Louise Bouic, Chris Keithley, Kay Tufft, Sue Thornton, there’s a whole range of people, and of course those who dressed up today; Ruth Handley, Karen Sirdefield, Keith Booles…”
So what was her favourite costume of the day?
“I think the Black-Eyed Peas really made me laugh and their interpretation of it, because when I first saw the costumes I thought they were coming as caterpillars.”
Another devoted lecturer and orchestrator, this time on Blackheath Lane, was Lesley Hayes, made up as Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne. She shared with us her thoughts of the day.
“There’s three [staff members] who worked quite closely together, all chipping in and doing various things; myself [Ozzy], Helen Ashwood [Bruce Springsteen] and Kathryn Shenton [Slash],” she explained.
“We sat down and had a chat about what to do, then it was just putting that into practice, sending emails to the cohorts and assigning people different roles.
“It's really good because we’ve got students in the skills labs today, they’re third-year students that’re studying deteriorating patients. I’m playing a female version of Ozzy in that scenario, I’m at home and they’re treating me.
“A lot of people have been involved, not just academic staff.”
Pictures from the day will be posted on our newly updated Blackheath Lane and Shrewsbury homepages very soon...