Alpaca visit brings festive cheer to County staff and patients

There were plenty of smiles on the faces of patients and staff at County Hospital as Panda, Teddy and the team from Wetley Moor Alpacas toured inpatient wards last Christmas.

Rebecca Ferneyhough, Head of Nursing at County Hospital who helped organise our very special visitors alongside UHNM Charity said: “It was amazing putting smiles on everybody’s faces. These visits brought Christmas back into environments that have been so pressured and taken over by many challenges and it’s just made everybody stop and smile- the best days of my whole 21-year career here at UHNM.”

Ruby Bailey from Wetley Moor Alpacas added: “We use our alpacas as therapy animals in a range of settings so they’re well trained and behaved and enjoy wherever they go so we thought why not bring a bit of festive joy to UHNM. It was absolutely fantastic, Panda and Teddy were so well received, everyone they came into contact with had great big smiles on their faces so it was just so joyous and there was a real buzz around the hospital.”