Vintage staff to walk 10,000 steps in fundraising drive for nurses

Vintage is organising a fundraising walk to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the NHS and to celebrate the important contribution made by nurses.

The walk will be take place on Friday 6th July and will raise money for the Royal College of Nursing Foundation, a charity which gives vital support to nurses. 

Staff from Vintage and Christie Watson, author of The Language of Kindness: A Nurse’s Story (Vintage), will walk 10,000 steps through London – the number of steps a nurse walks in one shift. 

Vintage aims to raise at least £1,500 for the RCN Foundation, an amount which has already been matched by a personal donation from Christie Watson. 

Watson said: "We live in a time where nurses are struggling like never before. NHS staff are the biggest users of pay day lenders. I am delighted to support the RCN Foundation because they help nurses in many ways, including supporting the too many nurses suffering financial hardship. We must all shout for nurses, and for patients."

The Language of Kindness was published in the UK in May. Watson is currently working with Mammoth Productions, the production company behind "Poldark" and "Victoria", to develop the book into a televised series. The Language of Kindness is an account of nursing, a profession defined by "acts of care, compassion and kindness from birth to death", said the publisher.  

Watson, who was a nurse herself for more than 20 years, tells stories including the nursing of a premature baby who has made it through the night, a patient’s heart-lung transplant, and the hair-washing of a child fatally injured in a fire, attempting to remove the toxic smell of smoke before the grieving family arrive. 

The Language of Kindness Walk for Nurses will leave the Vintage offices at Penguin Random House, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, SW1V 2SA, at midday on Friday 6th July. It will finish at the Royal College of Nursing headquarters, 20 Cavendish Square, SW1G 0RN, at approximately 2pm, where lunch and drinks will be served. 

Donations can be made via the event's fundraising page.