Overwhelmed by the kindness of strangers was how members of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals’ charity team felt at the end of their shift on the buses!
The quartet had boarded a bus donated by Stagecoach that travelled throughout the day from morning to tea-time rush hour around Chorley, Leyland and Preston, making scheduled stops at local supermarkets, offices, workplaces, high street stores and schools to collect Christmas presents for patients in hospital on Christmas Day.
The team collected hundreds of pressies generously gifted by members of the public, meaning that with gifts still to be bought using cash donations from an online festive giving page it had set up, every man, woman and child in either the Royal Preston Hospital or Chorley and South Ribble Hospital – approximately 1,000 patients altogether – will now have a gift to unwrap on Christmas morning.
Dan Hill, head of charities for the trust, said: “We were truly overwhelmed by the kindness of the Preston, Leyland and Chorley public. We are well aware that we’re in the middle of a cost of living crisis and that Christmas is an expensive time of year anyway. We thought we’d spread a bit of Christmas cheer by coming along in our decorated bus while collecting a few gifts but we received bags and boxes loads.
“We cannot thank everyone enough for their generosity. We’re also very grateful to MP EV Vehicle Charging Solutions for their sponsorship as that covered the cost of all associated marketing materials for this year’s give a gift campaign and will help to purchase additional gifts. Last but not least, we have to thank Stagecoach for the loan of their bus and driver to do the rounds. Without them, it would have been impossible.”
For further information on Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Charity, see https://lthcharity.org.uk/