Our history
Timeline
1980
The Friends of the Sick Kids
Anaesthetist Dr Richard Burtles formally founds ‘The Friends of the Sick Kids’, starting with a fete in the hospital car park to fundraise for a new scanner.
1984
One Stop Shop
The ECHC Shop begins as a stall in the hospital reception. It has since moved location seven times, including a brief stint in a shed in the Sick Kids car park! Find out more about our hospital shop here.
1991
Come As You Are
Kurt Cobain and Dave Grohl from Nirvana play a benefit gig at Edinburgh’s The Southern Bar to raise funds for The Sick Kids. Listen to a recording here.
1994
The Sick Kids Friends Foundation
The charity joins forces with the TASK Appeal – which raised over £10m to build new operating theatres and the hospital emergency department – and becomes the Sick Kids Friends Foundation.
2007
£1million of Life-Changing Grants
For the first time, we award over £1million to fund life-changing equipment, projects and services at the Sick Kids and other children’s healthcare settings, including over £522k for a pioneering CT Scanner.
2014
Lights, Camera, Action
We grant our largest ever award of £550k to fund a state-of-the-art Gamma Camera – the first of its kind for a children’s hospital in Scotland. The revolutionary scanner is instrumental in detecting life-threatening conditions like cancer and epilepsy.
2016
New Name, Same Aim
With the announcement that the Sick Kids is to relocate to Little France and change its name, we take this positive opportunity to update our own – and so we become Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity.
2019
Oor Wullie’s BIG Bucket Trail
We team up with Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity and the ARCHIE Foundation for Oor Wullie’s BIG Bucket Trail – the first ever nationwide public art trail – raising over £1.2m for Scotland’s children’s hospitals.
2021
Our New Home!
