As the countdown to December 25 gather pace, pupils and their families from Bloomfield and Ballyholme Primary Schools united to donate bundles of toys to the Ulster Hospital Paediatric Ward to ensure children and young people will have a gift on Christmas Day.
Bloomfield Primary School teacher Catherine Southall explained how, “We put a notification out on the parent app ‘Seesaw’ across both schools and the Prize Guy saw it and dropped donations of toys down as well. We are just blown away by the generosity of parents.”
Catherine continued, “When my brother was a baby he spent a year and a half on the Craig Ward which was over Christmas as well. It is such an awful experience to have a family member in hospital and with children missing out at celebrating Christmas at home, I just thought this would be something that would make them smile.”
Ulster Hospital Healthcare Play Specialist Gillian Sinclair thanked all involved for the generous donation. “Our team will ensure that any child or young person who is spending Christmas on the ward or in the ED will have a present to unwrap. We always make sure we have a variety of age appropriate gifts and it is great to see so much in the way of choice. The parents and children from the local primary schools as well as the Prize Guy have been so generous and we just want to say thank you.”