I became executive director of the Trust in July last year. It was basically through a process of: What do I want to do and how do I want to affect change on the island? And I thought that health care was a very important pillar of the community and I wanted to help make sure we do it right.I graduated from Oakwood College (in the US) and came back home to work at the Bank of Bermuda in various capacities. After that, I went to the XL Foundation where I worked as a project manager, doing strategic analysis and process evaluation. On completion of my time there, I decided to go self-employed and have worked with various non-profits on process, strategy and a bit of fund-raising.

Yes, I was also a board member of BIBA for their local awareness programme. Also I'm a board member for the Bermuda Dance Company, on the Board of Education and also president of the National Parent Teachers Association. I also have certification from Boston College in corporate communication.

The Trust was formed out of a feasibility study carried out last year on the capacity to fund-raise for the hospital. And we felt it was necessary to have a separate entity, separate from the Bermuda Hospitals Board and the Ministry of Health, to actually act as a fund-raising arm to help the hospital with its aims and initiatives. We have set up a board of trustees, who will actually look at the management and facilitation of funds on behalf of the hospital.

We don't know at this stage. We know there is a need for the hospital to expand on what it currently has. Therefore with the campaign, we will try to make sure that we actually fund-raise for the vision the hospital has. But the hospital's vision is going to be based on the master estate planning process they are going through at the moment, so we don't yet know what health care is going to look like in nine, ten or 15 years' time.

Our goal is to ensure that the hospital's vision can be carried forward and we provide the support system of providing the funds for that.

The money we raise will support what the results of what the estate master plan produces. Until we know what that will be ? it could be a new hospital, it could be an expanded unit ? we don't know. We rely on the hospital's own team of experts to derive what the hospital's needs will be.

Money is always a process by solicitation, but in this solicitation you have to get people to understand what the needs of health care will be. Raising funds comes from the heart, more than anything else. You give from the heart. So we want good health care to be the number one goal for all residents on the island.We are right now cultivating some of our donors. We will also be going through the process of whether we should have informal meetings to address selected groups. Also we may have the regular meetings throughout the community, so the community can understand what the needs of health care are today.

We are targeting everyone on the island. Health care is important to all of us. Each one of us will be touched in one way or another by what health care can provide for us. Well, I think we're still at the elementary stage of really knowing what the needs are, so it may be a combination of things, how we'll actually garner the funds that are necessary.We are basically right now at the cultivation stage. We do have some organisations on board who understand what the needs are. But we're still going through that process.

Very closely. The Trust was something that was born out of the Hospitals Board and therefore our roles and responsibilities will be managed to a certain extent by what we need to do to govern the money that comes in, but also to work with the BHB in their process of capital improvements.

I think the challenge in itself is going to be ensuring that people understand why we need to fund-raise for the hospital and to ensure that we receive enough funds to meet the hospital's capital needs. We need to ensure that we can do it to take good care of the residents of the island. It's to make sure that the quality of life on the island remains at a high standard.

I think it's important for people to know that the insurance is not driven by this office. It's driven by how the hospital manages and by its relationship with the insurers. Our role will always be fund-raising. The question of how the hospital manages how to deal with how high the costs of health care are is the role of the Hospitals Board. We need to make sure that people understand what fund-raising means to the health care of the island. That's our role to make sure that takes place. The hospital deals with the tangible effects of health care in the community. They are separate things. We don't want to meddle with the hospitals' work because we're not the experts. We are not providers of medical care. We are facilitators to help give them the funds they need to do their job well.

We have a group of volunteers and we have established our Capital Committee. So there is a list of varied volunteers.

That's not a problem. We would just have to look at what capacity we could include them. We're still at the early stages of trying to ensure that, whatever the results of the estate planning process will be, we meet those particular needs.To ensure that we have the necessary governance in place to manage the funds that will come in. Also to develop the process of collecting funds and ensuring that we have the appropriate boards and committees in place. So, day to day, I am having constant discussions with our trustees, with the CEO of the hospital and our volunteers.

We have a timetable we are following. With any raising of funds, we have to ensure that the product is right. We have to establish what the overall plan is. The overall plan we anticipate arriving some time in 2005, so we have to ensure we are knowledgeable about what will be the process from there and what will be the next step. It's premature to talk about that that. I continually talk about the estate master planning process and until we get the results of that we have no idea of what will be needed.

Well, I don't want to go on a figure at this point. At this stage, we know the hospital has needs. And until the master planning process is completed we don't know what that need is. So figures are premature until we know what the end product will be. I think people understand what the needs of the hospital are. We have talked to various potential donors and they are very interested in looking at how they can commit. I think reaction has been very positive.

The board meets on a quarterly basis at the moment. The estate planning process will pretty much be our guideline, so we are waiting for that. But we also have some under committees that meet on a monthly basis.

I know that people will be positive about this. They know that we will work diligently towards ensuring that we have a hospital that will give good health care to the island.

Health care is number one because it affects all of us. We all get sick. We all need a hospital. That's why I felt it was important to be involved in something like the Trust.