As you are all aware, last Halloween we had the nightmare no parent ever wants to face of watching their child fight for their life. We spent a week in paediatric HDU and a further week in ward 15 waiting for our baby to get better. Thanks to all the nurses and doctors on the children's ward, who never lost hope, she is now doing amazingly well.

One thing I remember being quite grateful of while we were in there was the fact that, as Orla was only 2 weeks old, she wasn't very aware of what was going on or the fact that anything was different. This made my heart break for all the poorly children who did know different and had been taken away from their day to day lives and families due to illness.

Thankfully, I've been lucky enough to have only spent a couple of days here and there in hospital in my lifetime but I am aware of how lonely it can be. Can imagine this is so much worse at Christmas time!

As my way of thanks to the UHCW children's ward, this year, on Christmas eve, my aim is to hand deliver a wrapped selection box to every child in the children's department. Not much but something that might just brighten a child's day.

There are 52 children's beds on the children's wards in addition to 6 HDU beds which totals nearly 60 selection boxes. I would be very very grateful of any donations from you lovely lot.