It’s the time of year to spread some festive cheer and children spending Christmas in our hospitals have been treated to fantastic goodie bags, kindly donated by West Ham United.

Our younger patients at Queen’s and King George hospitals enjoyed a variety of gifts, including their very own Hammers scarf, a teddy, playing cards and a stationery set.

Many children are sadly not lucky enough to spend the festive period at home with their families but acts of kindness such as this helps to put a smile on their faces.

Sophie Hart, a Children’s Site Practitioner at our Trust, said: “It’s lovely to see our young patients happy at this time of year, even when they are unwell. Thank you to West Ham, their generosity has been appreciated by the children, their families and by all of our staff on the ward.”   

Chief Medical Officer Magda Smith was delighted to be able to hand out the goodie bags and said: “Spending Christmas in hospital is very hard, especially for children, so it makes a real difference when we can do something like this to help cheer them up.

“It gave me great joy to see the children smiling and we must thank West Ham United for that. The club’s generosity throughout the past year has been appreciated by everyone here at the Trust and we are extremely grateful for the close relationship we have.

“It’s a difficult time of year for our staff and patients, but the treats the club have provided in recent weeks has helped lift morale.”

This generous donation is part of the club’s ‘12 Days of Christmas’ campaign, which includes a number of community activities to help lonely, elderly and vulnerable people across East London and Essex. It also includes thanking NHS workers, and as part of the initiative, some of our staff were recently treated to a special visit to West Ham’s training ground.