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A kind-hearted nine-year Peterborough school girl has started a family tradition of donating duplicate birthday and Christmas gifts to bring smiles to the faces of young hospital patients. 

Nine-year-old Bea Willbond began regifting her own presents to Peterborough City Hospital’s Amazon Children's Ward five years ago.

The idea followed the experience of a family friend whose young daughter spent Christmas day in hospital; yet still received gifts on Christmas morning from generous donations.

Bea’s mum Becky said: “This was the first we’d heard of gifts being donated to children in this way. We thought it was such a lovely thing to do so we started to take presents into Peterborough City Hospital so that other children would still get presents over Christmas!”

“Bea would go to a toy store, pick a few things out and we would wrap them. However, when she had birthday parties with her whole class attending, we always found that there were some duplicate presents so we asked Bea if she would like to donate some of her presents to the hospital for Christmas!”

“She loved the idea and did it every year until her last two birthdays where she simply asked that nobody brought presents for her but kindly donated to the Amazon Children’s Ward.”

This generous gesture has resulted in £320 being raised – but Bea (now assisted by her little brother Beaudie) continues to regift some of their own presents and are planning a seasonal visit to Amazon ward in the run up to this Christmas.

Play Services Co-ordinator for North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, Zoe Wilkinsonsaid: “Bea is an absolute delight – she is so kind, caring and generous and her donations have really gone such a long way to bring Christmas cheer to our young patients who find themselves in hospital during the festive season.”

 

 

This year, Bea has set a target of raising £500 to enable the Amazon Ward to buy gifts for young patients. If you would like to support Bea – please visit  https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/bea-willbond?utm_medium=CR&utm_source=CL

Kind-hearted Bea Willbond with Play Services Co-ordinator Zoe Wilkinson.