HAREFIELD Hospital is celebrating the start of its centenary year with a £33,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to support a social history project culminating in an exhibition at the hospital this autumn.

The grant will also be used to fund a range of arts projects during the year, including the conservation of an ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) quilt that was made by patients and staff in 1915.

The quilt will then go on permanent display with a new textile piece to be commissioned from an artist working alongside current staff and patients.

Harefield was established in 1915 to treat soldiers from Australia and New Zealand who had been injured during World War One.

Since then, it has become one of the leading specialist heart and lung hospitals in the world and one of the largest transplant centres.

It is at the forefront of pioneering research and is responsible for many of the cutting-edge treatments used to combat heart and lung disease today.

Gill Raikes, chief executive of Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals Charity, said: “There is so much affection towards our hospital, which will be captured and celebrated through activities funded through this project.”