Paediatric wards in UHG and Portiuncula received an early Christmas gift this week with the delivery of 1,120 Christmas annuals courtesy of Folens.
The publishing company donated the annuals to the Children in Hospital Ireland volunteers in Galway as part of a national donation to the charity of books worth more than €32,000. CHI volunteers will be delivering the books to 23 children’s hospital wards around the country in the coming weeks.
The annuals will help to spread some festive cheer among children in hospital in the lead up to Christmas.
CHI is a voluntary organisation working directly with children in hospitals to help them cope with illness and hospitalisation through the provision of daily play sessions. The group also provides ongoing support to families. CHI has been providing support and fun to sick children for the past 45 years.
“Our volunteers are dedicated to supporting children during their stay in hospital by providing play and recreational activities every day,” said Mary O’Connor, CEO of Children in Hospital Ireland. “Christmas is a particularly tough time for a child to be sick, and these Christmas annuals supplied by Folens really helped to brighten up the children’s wards last year. We are delighted to work with the Folens team again this year and distribute these annuals across the country, including Portiuncula Hospital Ballinasloe and Galway University Hospital, with help from our wonderful and dedicated Galway volunteers.”
Fiona Tiernan, Folens’ territory manager for Galway, added: “CHI have a fantastic network of volunteers who help over 100,000 children across the country every year. We are delighted to help in any way we can to bring some happiness to the children’s ward in Galway for Christmas, and our team will be distributing all 8,000 of our 100 per cent Irish annuals across the country this week with the help of CHI volunteers. In the last three years we have distributed more than €130,000 worth of our Christmas annuals to some of the sickest children in the country thanks to our partnership with CHI.”
To learn more about CHI see childreninhospital.ie
