Local football club donate gifts to UHNM’s youngest patients

Some of UHNM’s youngest patients have been able to receive a gift this Christmas thanks to a local football club.

Blythe Bridge Junior Football Club visited Staffordshire Children's Hospital at Royal Stoke just before the big day to donate a number of toys and gifts they had collected and fundraised for.

Club chairman Simon Grayley and wife and treasurer Samantha were on hand to make the kind donation.

Simon said: “We run 17 teams across children’s age groups from six right up to 17 years-old with 250 players within the club as well as 17 lots of managers for each team.”

“This year we decided to support both UHNM Charity and the Donna Louise Children's Hospice with donations at Christmas- gifts, toys, anything we could think of to support children either in hospital or facing a tough time over Christmas.”

“We decided to support the children’s hospital because our son Jacob has used UHNM for 10 years following a liver transplant, so its an organisation that’s supported us massively through our journey with him, as well as lots of other parents journeys that we know of through the club.”

“Across the club we put out an appeal to our player’s parents, our managers and our staff asking for any donations they could afford or make. We’ve had parent’s rummaging through cupboards for unopened Christmas presents, some people have chipped in whatever money they could here or there and we’ve gone out to the shops to buy toys.”

“My message to staff not just at Christmas but throughout the year is how amazing they’ve been through the years. Christmas is a tough time of year to be in hospital and we just wanted to do something to help in any way we could.”