Staff take St Oswald’s to their hearts

Nov 6 2007 by Karen Wilson, The Journal

SERVICE engineers from Newcastle company Iguana Central Heating have been giving up their evenings and weekends to help make St Oswald’s Hospice in the city more energy efficient.

St Oswald’s provides hospice care for adults and children with life-limiting illnesses from across the North-East and Cumbria. Iguana is a subsidiary of eaga plc and provides central heating to customers under the Government’s Warm Front scheme.

In the past few months, Iguana’s Ian Thompson, Barrie McGreevy, Jason Wallace and Steve Synnott have checked the central heating, fitted thermostatic radiator valves and installed blending valves to control hot water temperatures throughout the building.

They even missed the recent England v Russia European Championship qualifier to get the work done.

Field Manager Ian Thompson, said: “The work being carried out by the nurses and volunteers at St Oswald’s is absolutely fantastic. There really are some wonderful people here and it’s great that Iguana has chosen St Oswald’s Hospice as its adopted charity.”

St Oswald’s facilities manager Jane Hamblin said: “Iguana’s support has been superb. We’ve had a long list of urgent work hanging over us for months and the guys have come in and done everything. Ensuring our patients are warm and comfortable and that they have access to safe temperature-controlled hot water is extremely important. We are extremely grateful for Iguana’s help.”

Iguana is a subsidiary of green support services company eaga plc’s heating division.

David Hodges, divisional managing director of eaga Heating, said: “Adopting a charity like St Oswald’s is not only an ideal way of making a real and genuine difference where it matters, but it also helps build team spirit among the staff. Whether it’s raising money in our offices or depots, organising fundraising golf days or volunteering to help out at the hospice, we’re all involved.

“The fact that the lads have been giving up their evenings and weekends shows just how much they have taken St Oswald’s to heart.”