12 December 2011
A Christmas stay in hospital has been made that little bit more bear-able for children at Queen Mary's Hospital for Children thanks to the generosity of customers at the Sutton branch of Matalan.
The store has been running an appeal whereby shoppers are asked whether they would be happy to add £5 to their bill to pay for a teddy bear for children at Queen Mary's, which is based at St Helier Hospital.
The response has been so overwhelming that staff from the store were able to bring in over 40 teddies after only four days, and have so far returned on two further occasions clutching batches of bears, bringing the total of cuddly toys donated to almost 150.
Sara Smith, play coordinator on the hospital's children's ward, said: "I would really like to thank everyone at Matalan for organising this appeal. You can see what a difference it makes - the kids' eyes lit up when they saw the teddies!
"It's a lovely gesture - everyone's been so generous. I could hardly believe it when the guys from Matalan came back a second time, bags brimming with cuddly toys."
Matalan store supervisor Atif Khalid said: "We thought that this would be the ideal time to do an appeal on behalf of the kids, as a Christmas in hospital can't be too much fun.
"We wanted our appeal to give something back to our local community, which seems to have struck a chord with our customers. We're delighted to be able to hand over so many teddies and cuddly toys for the kids.
