Celebrating another amazing year at Reading Pride

On Saturday 31 August 2024, we took part in Reading Pride's annual parade and celebrating of the LGBTQ+ community. This was the 21st year of Reading Pride and we are very proud to have been a part of it. We want to say a huge thank you to all of the members of staff who volunteered to support us, alongside colleagues from the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, at our PrideInU space.

Our volunteers came down to King's Meadow on Saturday to help at our pop-up health space, carrying out activities such as community engagement, fundraising for improving LGBTQ+ patient experiences, and promoting the Trust as an inclusive employer. Our Sexual Health and Talking Therapies teams were also on hand to speak to attendees and share information about our services. This year we took our health bus along with us for the parade and clinicians were also carrying out liver health checks throughout the day on the bus.

Our Pride Network Chair, John Weaver-Lovell said

“Reading Pride is about celebrating how beautiful and amazing our community is and it was a fantastic day. I once read a very powerful quote which said, “To realise a world of equality and dignity for all, we will have to first change laws and policies; we will then have to change hearts and minds”. This is what connects us. Pride is not just about how far we have come, it’s also about celebrating our diversity and inclusivity which spans across all communities”.

Following on from Pride last year we have started looking at how we can improve LGBTQ+ patience experiences.

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