For family, friends and daughter, Rachel Starr, the pain of losing her mum, Karen Goddard, suddenly to cancer at the age of 55-years-old will never fade. However, having the knowledge that Karen was given the very best care by the Medical Assessment Unit (MAU) team at the Royal United Hospital, Bath (RUH) during her final days provided them with something positive to continue to carry on and use their experience to benefit others.

Determined to make a difference for future patients in MAU, Rachel, with the help of her family, organised a moonlight charity walk around their home town of Midsomer Norton to raise funds to purchase a second specialist machine that her mum had used on the unit.

The top-of-the-range Nasal High Flow system is a piece of breathing equipment that had made Karen's last few days in hospital more comfortable and gave her family their last precious moments with her.

The walking event was a huge success and together with the support of family and friends, raised the £2,500 needed to purchase the equipment with the hospital's charity, the Forever Friends Appeal, and further funds going towards their RUH Cancer Care Campaign. Rachel, together with her father, David, aunt Sharon and close friend, Amy Budds, returned to MAU to present to the team the life-saving equipment.

Helen Jeffcoat, Senior Sister, commented: "On behalf of the team on MAU, I would like to again thank the Goddard family for their generous donation of a Nasal High Flow Oxygen Machine for the unit. It is hopefully a great comfort to them that it gave Karen some relief and dignity in the last stages of her life. It is their generosity that will ultimately give so many other patients the same high level of care and treatment.

"This is an exceptional piece of equipment that has proven to be of such benefit to the many acutely ill patients that we see here on MAU. We cannot thank the family enough."

Jan Witt, In Memory and Legacy Officer for the Forever Friends Appeal, continues: "It is incredibly moving when bereaved families find the inner strength to cope and become passionate about fundraising for people in a similar situation and choose to support the work of staff at the RUH.

"Every year we are amazed by the generosity of our supporters who help the hospital in this way. This kind of support enables the clinical teams to take advantage of advances in medical technology and deliver the very best care for their patients at the RUH."

Rachel, on behalf of the family, added: "After losing mum so suddenly, it felt that our world had been ripped apart, but through the pain and dark we saw light, in the fact of the amazing care that my mum received whilst on MAU.

"So we decided we wanted to give back to the department to also help so many other families whose lives can be saved or made more comfortable with this machine.

"There are a few people in particular we want to thank for the charity walk that took place last November, which saw over seventy people walk the five miles past local places that were significant in my mum's life. Firstly, Abi and John Anderton and the Winterfield Inn for holding the event and catering, Huw Garrett, at Quick Print, for sponsoring the printing of the T-shirts, Wilts Electrical for supplying the T-shirts, Travis Perkins for donating the high vis jackets, as all of these meant all the money raised would benefit the RUH, Alex Evans for the disco and Mulberry and Bristol City FC for our top raffle prizes, plus all the other companies who donated prizes for the raffle.

"I would especially like to thank everyone who came on the night, purchased raffle tickets or donated, as without you this wouldn't have been possible. We were overwhelmed with how much of a success the night was.

"On returning to MAU to present the machine to the staff, it made us all feel extremely proud that mum can have a lasting legacy at the RUH and take comfort in knowing so many other families will benefit and to acknowledge the team for the care and support they gave my mum.

"I would like to continue to organise another event to raise further funds for MAU and the RUH to support all the great work that they do."