About Us

The Torbay Hospital League of Friends was set up in 1954 to provide amenities and services to support Torbay Hospital.

Over the years it has become one of the leading Leagues in the country providing many gifts - large and small - amounting to millions of pounds. (see Gifts so far)

As well as its fundraising activities the League also provides;

• The Linen League where volunteers meet weekly to make special articles for wards and departments 
• Voluntary Guides for patients visiting the various clinics.

The League is able to enhance what the Trust provides, by purchasing 'extras' to provide the most advanced methods of treatment, for benefit of local people and staff of the hospital.

It's members help the Hospital by

• Supporting its work
• Recruiting volunteers
• Maintaining a relationship with the volunteers
• Creating a link between the Hospital and the community it serves, and
• The provision of funds to supplement its resources

Click to see our current members

Our History

The first hospital to be built in Torquay was a voluntary hospital.  It was built with voluntary contributions and maintained by voluntary contributions.

With the introduction of the National Health Service in July 1948 all this voluntary help disappeared until early in 1954 when a few people got together and decided that there was still a need for voluntary help for the hospital.

The League started in a small way with the gifts it provided but as the membership increased with the corresponding increase in income, it was able to take on larger items such as television sets, modern beds, lockers, cubicle curtains around beds and later, day rooms where patients could sit in comfort on all the wards in the older part of the hospital.

Since then the League has provided many large items of equipment ranging from a few pounds to more than a million pounds, helping to fund everything for comfortable benches to major new buildings and facilities. We are delighted to have been honoured with the Queens Award for Vountary Service in recognition of this work.

The healthcare challenges of our time are immense and we look to the future with determination, aiming to continue to work as partners in care for our hospital and all who find themselves in need of their fantastic services.