Children in hospital will get a few extra gifts this year thanks to a Facebook appeal showed the good nature of the community.
Michelle and Sue with Rosanne and some of the toys they delivered.
Sue Ridley and Michelle Green regularly arrange for donations to the children’s ward. They inundated the ward with Easter Eggs earlier this year and decided to see if they could call on kind hearted followers of their Facebook page to donate toys for Christmas.
They were inundated with gifts and brought the stash to Blackpool Victoria Hospital ready for the big day.
Michelle, 35, from Layton, said: “There is only two of us this year working on this but we wanted to make sure we collected as much as we could. It shows what you can do with the power of Facebook and the kind hearts of the community, especially when it comes to helping children.”
Rosanne Norman, a play worker on the Children’s Ward, took delivery of the hoard of toys. She said: “We’re always so grateful for donations at any time of the year and around Christmas we always get lots but this single donation from just two people, not a big business, is really overwhelming. It’s very kind of everyone who responded to the Facebook appeal Michelle and Sue put out.
“We are very busy at the moment with all 16 beds in the children’s ward taken up with sick children. We will be trying to get as many of them home before Christmas as possible but those who are with us on Christmas day will be thrilled with their gifts. We will also make sure A&E gets a supply of gifts too so any children who get taken there on Christmas day will also be cheered up with a gift.”
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For all media enquiries please contact Nathan Skelton, communications support officer, on 01253 953538 or Nathan.skelton@bfwhospitals.nhs.uk