The Specialist Palliative Care Team at The James Cook University Hospital is inviting families to remember loved ones who have sadly died in South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation trust hospitals by placing a dedication on their memorial Christmas tree.

You can pay tribute to the lives of friends and family by writing a small dedication, these will then be placed inside a love bauble and added to the memorial trees which are based at the south entrance at The James Cook University Hospital and in the centre of the Friarage Hospital.

We are asking that you make a minimum donation of £2.00 and the money raised from the baubles will continue to support the palliative care Dragonfly Scheme. This scheme allows the palliative care team to provide comfort bags and memory boxes to the relatives of patients receiving end of life care. This is their way of offering that extra support to families in remembering their loved ones, and to help them cope at such a difficult time.

*While restricted visiting is in place we will be sharing photographs of the trees on social media over the coming weeks.

Laura Devereux, Macmillan palliative and end of life support sister, said: Last Christmas we were blown away with the amount of support and feedback we received by local families. We know that Christmas can be a very difficult time for those who have lost someone special so we hope our memorial trees go some way in offering comfort.