Home > Privacy

Privacy

Privacy policy

Newcastle Hospitals Charity is committed to protecting and respecting your personal information and being transparent about what we do with it.

This policy explains when and why we collect personal information about you, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others, how we keep it safe and secure and your rights and choices in relation to your information.

Any questions regarding this policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to [email protected] or in writing to:

Newcastle Hospitals Charity
The Fleming
Burdon Terrace
Jesmond
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE2 3AE

Key points:

  • We will only send you marketing information electronically (e.g. by email, text/SMS) if you specifically agree to us doing so.
  • You can change your marketing preferences at any time by emailing [email protected] or calling us on 0191 213 7235.
  • If you ask us to stop sending marketing information, we will update our records to stop further mailings as quickly as we can. However, for up to 28 days you may still receive further mailings which were already in progress prior to you asking us to stop.
  • We may send marketing information by post or call you for marketing purposes, unless you have previously opted out or said that you don’t want to be contacted. Prior to carrying out postal mailings we may check against the Mail Preference Service.
  • We collect personal data e.g. your name, postal and email addresses, when you give them to us for various purposes, such as donating, seeking advice, signing up for an event, or applying for a job.
    We gather information about traffic to and on our website to improve the site, and for marketing purposes. We use cookies and tags on our website.
  • We provide links to other websites whose privacy practices are outside our control. You should check the privacy practices of any third-party website before disclosing any personal information.
  • We use the information you give us for segmentation of our database, for example, by analysing information such as the postcodes of supporters, names, and addresses. This enables us to tailor our communications to you and in a fundraising context, enabling us to raise more funds.
  • We rely on your consent to process your data, but you can withdraw this at any time.

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact our team by emailing: [email protected] or write to us at the following address:

Newcastle Hospitals Charity
Nelson House
The Fleming
Burdon Terrace
Jesmond
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE2 3AE

This Privacy Policy was last updated in May 2025.

What type of information is collected from you?

The personal information we collect, store, and use might include:

  • your name and contact details (including postal address, email address and telephone number);
    your date of birth; this can be required to establish eligibility for events or fundraising.
  • information about your activities on our website and about the device used to access it, for instance your IP address and geographical location.
  • your bank or credit card details. If you make a donation online or make a purchase, your card information is not held by us, it is collected by our third-party payment processors, who specialise in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions; information as to whether you are a UK taxpayer so we can claim gift aid; and
  • any other personal information shared with us.

Data protection laws recognise certain categories of personal information as sensitive and therefore requiring greater protection, for example information about your health, ethnicity and religion.

We do not usually collect sensitive data about you unless there is a clear and valid reason for doing so and data protection laws allow us to.

Where appropriate, we will make it clear why we are collecting this type of information and what it will be used for.

How do we obtain your personal information?

We collect information in the following ways:

When you give it to us directly

You may give us your information in order to sign up for one of our events, when you contact us to ask about our activities, to tell us your story, order products and services from us, seek assistance, make a donation to us, support us, fundraise on our behalf, apply for a job or otherwise give us personal information.

When you give permission to other parties to share it with us

Your information may be shared with us by independent event organisers, for example the Great Run Company and Run for Charity or fundraising sites like Just Giving or Enthuse. These independent third parties will only share information with us with your consent and when you have indicated that you wish to hear from us.

You should check any third-party privacy policies when you provide your information to understand fully how they will process your information. We may also obtain information about you from a family member or a friend who contacts us on your behalf, or if a volunteer or fundraiser passes on your details to us. 

When your information is available publicly or from other external sources

We may combine information that we already have about you with information available publicly or information available from external sources, such as Experian, to gain a better understanding of you and to improve our fundraising methods, products, and services. Such information could be for example, socio-demographic and lifestyle information and information about previous donations you have made.

The information we get from other external sources may depend on your privacy settings or the responses you give, so you should regularly check them. For example, you may have provided permission for a company or other organisation to share your data with third parties including charities. This could be when you buy a product or service, register for an online competition, or sign up with a comparison site.

Depending on your settings or the privacy policies for social media and messaging services like Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, Google+, or X (Formerly Twitter), you might give us permission to access information from those accounts or services.

We may also obtain information about you where it is publicly available and found in places such as Companies House, Land Registry website and information that is published in articles and newspapers.

How do we store your information?

Your information is stored digitally on the Charity’s servers at a data centre located in the United Kingdom and in hard copy at the Charity’s Office.

From time to time we may send your data to one of our service providers, whose staff may be engaged in, among other things, the fulfilment of your event booking or the provision of connected services. By submitting your personal data, you agree that we may share your information with these third parties in accordance with this Privacy Policy , some of which may store data outside the EU, although we will only do so in accordance with applicable law.

We will aim to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Security to protect your information

We employ appropriate technical and organisational security measures to protect your information from being accessed by unauthorised persons and against unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction and damage. We also endeavour to take all reasonable steps to protect your information from external threats. However, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our website; any transmission is at your own risk.

How long do we retain your data?

We will retain certain information in respect of financial transactions for as long as the law requires us to for tax, Gift Aid or audit/accounting purposes (which may be up to 7 years after a particular financial transaction).

The Charity makes all reasonable endeavours to ensure that your personal information is accurate, kept secure, and retained only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it is collected. We therefore store your information for as long as legally required. If you advise us that you do not wish to be contacted, we will amend our records accordingly however we will retain your information until the legal period has elapsed.

If you are not satisfied with our response, or believe we are not processing your personal data in accordance with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) www.ico.org.uk.

How do we use your information?

We may use your information for several different purposes depending on how you communicate with us, for example:

  • We use your personal information to give you the information, support, services, or products you ask for.
  • We use your information to gain a full understanding of your situation so we can develop and offer you the best possible personalised services.
  • We use your information to keep a record of your relationship with us and for internal administrative purposes (such as our accounting and records), and to let you know about changes to our services or policies. We use your personal information to look into, and respond to, complaints, legal claims or other issues.
  • We use your personal information to claim Gift Aid on your donations.
  • We use personal data to carry out statistical analysis and research in order to help us to understand how we are performing and how we can improve our services and meet the needs of people that require our help.
  • We may also use your personal information for other purposes which we specifically notify you about and, where appropriate, obtain your consent.

Direct marketing

We use your information to send you communications about our work and how you can help us, for example, information about our campaigns, volunteering, fundraising activities, and how you can donate to us. Our forms have clear marketing preference questions and we include information on how you can say no to such marketing.

  • campaigns, fundraising appeals and activities, and promotions of goods and services,
  • checking donations for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime;
  • processing grant or job applications.

Legitimate interest

This is the legal basis that we rely on to send information and marketing by post or telephone when you take part in supporting Newcastle Hospitals Charity by donating, or requesting information about our work, marketing, campaigns and events or other services.

For example, if we have a legitimate interest in making sure that any marketing we send to you is relevant, we may process your information to enable marketing that is of particular interest to you.

When we process your personal information for our legitimate interests, we make sure to consider and balance any potential impact on you and your rights under the Data Protection law and GDPR. We will always ensure that your personal data will not be used where our interests are overridden by the impact on you, unless we have your consent or are required by law.

Telephone marketing will not include people who have registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) or indicated to us that they don’t want to receive marketing calls made this way. The only time we will contact you by telephone when you have registered with TPS is if you have given your consent directly us to receive marketing calls.

We will also have a legitimate interest in being able to use and process personal information for internal administrative purposes, and when it is necessary to take measures to protect our IT network and data security or to protect ourselves (and our beneficiaries and supporters) from risks to our charity such as fraud, criminal conduct or reputational damage.

Your choices

You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us. If you do not want to receive direct marketing communications from us about the vital work we do for our patients, families, and staff at Newcastle Hospitals, you can indicate this on the form used to collect your information.

We are committed to putting you in control of your data.  You are free to change your marketing preferences at any time (including to tell us that you don’t want to be contacted for marketing purposes). You can let us know if you would prefer not to receive marketing communications at any time by unsubscribing, emailing [email protected], or by calling us on 0191 213 7235.

We will not use your personal information for marketing purposes if you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted and will retain your details on a suppression list to help ensure that we do not continue to contact you. However, we may still need to contact you for administrative purposes like where we are processing a donation or thanking you for your participation in an event.

Under GDPR you have rights regarding the personal data that we hold and process about you. We want to ensure that you are always in control of your personal information. 

Part of this is making sure that you understand your legal rights.

Specifically, you have the right.

  • to be informed
  • of access
  • to rectification
  • to erasure
  • to restrict processing
  • to data portability
  • to object
  • in relation to automated decision making and planning

The right to access your personal information

You have a right to obtain confirmation that your personal information is being processed. You also have the right to request a copy of the personal information that we hold about you. You can do this by emailing [email protected]

When you are requesting a copy of the personal information that we hold about you, we will endeavour to provide you with the information you have requested without delay and in any event within one month of receiving your request.

We will not charge a fee for complying with a request unless the request is deemed to be manifestly unfounded or excessive.

Keeping your information safe

When you give us personal information, we take steps to ensure that appropriate technical and organisational controls are in place to protect it.

Any sensitive information (such as credit or debit card details) is encrypted and protected. When you are on a secure page, a lock icon will appear on the bottom of web browsers such as Microsoft Edge.

Non-sensitive details (your email address etc.) are normally transmitted over the internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems.

Keeping your information up to date

We take reasonable steps to ensure your information is accurate and up to date. To inform us of any changes to your contact details please contact the Charity team by emailing [email protected], or by calling us on 0191 213 7235.

Use of cookies

Like many other websites, our Charity website uses cookies. Cookies are small text files that sites transfer to your computer (or phone or tablet). They make interacting with a website faster and easier – for example by automatically filling your name and address in text fields. This helps us to deliver a more personalised service when you browse our website and improves our services.

It is possible to switch off cookies by setting your browser preferences. Turning cookies off may result in a loss of functionality when using our website and the websites of other organisations.

Children and young people

We are committed to protecting the privacy of children and young people that engage with us.
Newcastle Hospitals Charity will not knowingly contact anyone under the age of 18 to ask them for donations or other forms of financial contribution. If you’re aged 16 or under, you must get your parent, guardian or carer’s permission before you provide any personal information on our websites.

If you want to participate in an event organised by our charity, or a project facilitated by us, consent must be provided by your parent, guardian or carer if you are 16 or under.

Changes to this policy

We reserve the right to make changes to this privacy notice. Each time you visit this site; you should check this privacy notice to check that no changes have been made to any sections that are important to you. The latest version of our Privacy Policy will always be available on our website.

This Privacy Policy was last updated May 2025.