Created in Eastbourne over 20 years ago and now well established in Hailsham, Medi Tech Trust is a charity that is thriving. The founding trustees, older but as keen as ever, are looking for younger trustees to maintain the success they have achieved and bring modern ideas to the charity’s focused outlook. Although it has grown it is still a close-knit community, hands on just about covers it, the volunteers arrive to do whichever task suits them, the amount of packing, sorting, listing, data entry that is achieved is not short of awe-inspiring. The team could not manage without them.
Over the years, the aims of Medi Tech Trust have evolved. From starting as a small charity raising money for the first Holmium Laser Machine at Eastbourne District General Hospital to a respected Charitable Incorporated Organisation. The Medi Tech Team were proud recipients of the Queens Award for Voluntary Service in 2021. It has expanded to include teaching and training medical staff, together with a Humanitarian Aid Programme which recycles any unwanted medical equipment and supplies to UK charities, Low Income Countries Disaster Areas, and War Zones.
This year started with the trustees visiting the House of Commons arranged through Sussex Weald MP Nusrat Ghani, who has since become a patron of the charity. They were introduced to the Health Minister Wes Streeting and explained what the team were trying to do by recycling unused medical supplies and equipment that the NHS could not use and would end up in landfill.
The second half of 2025 has made it a record year. In East Sussex there were Recycling Shows at 4 local supermarkets raising public awareness and recycling bins were placed in more East Sussex surgeries. Talks were given in Bexhill, Hailsham Willingdon, Birmingham and Cheltenham and an award was given to founding trustee Bob Lewis as a Local Hero for East Sussex.
Since the summer the programme for supporting training visits has included Tanzania, Burundi and Madagascar. Medical supplies including 6 ventilators were also sent to a hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi. Five sea containers were sent to hospitals in Sierra Leone, Guinea Conakry, Nigeria and Tanzania, these included over 2,500 boxes packed with medical supplies worth over £2 million. The charity has also helped the Ukraine and makes regular donations of medical supplies and walking aids with at least 30 van loads having left the warehouse already this year. This is an ongoing support programme.
In East Sussex, medical supplies have been donated to East Sussex Food Banks and Baby Banks ,including some specialist medical supplies to Baby Banks throughout the UK. Locally two donations were made. The first of Cancer Cold Caps to Eastbourne District General Hospital and the second, a Cancer Cold Cap Machine plus Cold Caps to the Sussex Cancer Unit at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. The team were asked for Sensory Lights for an East Sussex Primary School and these are now in use by SEND Pupils. They were also able to send equipment to be used as medical and teaching aids to a UK College training students for the NHS.
To complete the year, during December, plans are in place for the following: Donating hospital beds to UK hospices, training colleges and homeless centres; Packing at least a further 1,000 boxes of medical supplies for overseas hospitals; Collecting more hospital beds to ship to African hospitals and donating more medical supplies, wheelchairs and walking aids to Ukraine. The team have now been contacted by hurricane-stricken Jamaica and plan to send as much aid as they can to them.
If you would like to become a Trustee or a volunteer, please contact Medi Tech Trust - 01323 442211 or [email protected].
The original article is available here.
