Elsing Ward get into the Christmas spirit alongside Santa

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital’s Christmas campaign, which sought to provide a present for every inpatient in hospital on Christmas day, has achieved its total.

NNUH set a target of securing donations of 1000 presents as part of their appeal and also sought to ensure that a suitable gift was provided to patients of all ages, male and female. The hospital has now closed their appeal following a fantastic response to the campaign.
Gifts have flooded in, with the Jenny Lind Children’s department receiving particularly generous donations. Both Langleys Toys in Norwich and Orchard Toys in Wymondham delivered more than 100 gifts each to the hospital for children of all ages. Larger gifts for use within the department have also been donated for children visiting the hospital to play with all year round.

Gifts are currently being sorted in advance of their delivery to wards and departments, in order to ensure that all patients receive a suitable gift.  Wrapping will take place once wards have taken delivery of their gifts and ward teams are gearing up to get into the Christmas spirit by arranging their own wrapping sessions.

Louise Cook, NNUH Fundraising Manager said: “We’ve been delighted with the response to our 2016 Send a Smile with Santa campaign and have been overwhelmed by the generosity of donations we have received. Support has come from across the county; from businesses, from patients who regularly attend our hospital and members of the general public and we would like to extend our sincere thanks to everyone who kindly helped us to achieve our ambitious campaign target.”

Christmas at NNUH got into full swing last week with the annual Christmas Fayre, featuring appearances from the hospital choir, Busybodies Stage School and a visit from Santa, raising over £1500 for the hospital charity and Friends of the NNUH.

Emma McKay, NNUH Director of Nursing said: “The spirit of Christmas should be enjoyed by all and the amazing response we have had to our campaign this year will enable us to ensure that patients in our hospital feel part of these celebrations. It’s a lovely thing for our nurses to be able to deliver the presents on Christmas morning and patients are delighted to receive a gift. Our grateful thanks go to all those who were kind enough to donate this year, we really have been humbled by the generosity of everyone who helped to deliver this dose of Christmas magic.”

Presents will be delivered to patients on Christmas morning by teams across the hospital, with Santa making a return visit to some lucky patients, alongside NNUH Chief Executive Mark Davies and NNUH Director of Nursing Emma McKay.