A group of railway staff from Northern, TransPennine Express, LNER and Network Rail travelled to Leeds Children’s Hospital yesterday morning to spread Christmas cheer.
The team, which departed from Leeds station shortly after 10:00, made their way through the city centre with an escort from West Yorkshire Police, British Transport Police and West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service.
Railway staff were joined by British and Commonwealth Boxing Champion Ishmael Davis and rugby league players from Super League, Championship and local community clubs, all of whom met with and provided presents to young patients at the hospital.
Patrick Cox, Programme Delivery Manager for Northern, first began organising toy runs to the hospital in 2017.
Patrick Cox, Programme Delivery Manager for Northern, said:It started out with two bags of toys and today we had two sleighs full of gifts, enough to ensure all the kids at the hospital get one this Christmas.
We had a wide range of toys for the younger kids and toiletries, sports gear and gift vouchers for the teenagers.
There are a load of portable DVD players, headphones and Netflix subscriptions too, so they can watch their favourite films.
We’re so grateful to all of the railway staff, local businesses and RMT and ASLEF trade unions, who all made generous donations, and to everyone who came down to support this year.
You can see that it means so much to everyone here, from the children and their relatives to all of the hospital staff. It puts a big smile on their faces and that’s what it’s all about.
Detention officer Anthony Walker-Senior and safer schools officer PC Gill Nelson also collected donations for the toy run from a number of officers and staff at West Yorkshire Police.
Maybank Security and Amulet Security have also been praised for aiding in the transport of a portion of the gifts.
Laura Whelan, head of nursing at Leeds Children’s Hospital, said:The toy run has become such a lovely tradition, it’s something we always look forward to in our Christmas calendar and our patients love it.
It started with one of our patients wanting to give something back and now it has grown to include so many local organisations and people in the community who want to do something kind for children in hospital at Christmas.
Thank you everyone involved and everyone who has donated. Merry Christmas.
