Festive Fun for Team BCHC
The holiday season is a busy time for BCHC Charity, as each year we spread a little sparkle by providing gifts, activities, and entertainment in hospitals, residential centres, rehabilitation centres, and community services across the Trust.
We kicked off the celebrations this year by hosting Winter Wellbeing events across the city for BCHC colleagues, providing musical entertainment, wellbeing resources, drinks and snacks, and hosting craft stalls packed with beautiful handmade items, including paintings by local artist Sonal Gajbe and gifts such as mugs, baubles, and sweet gift jars from Missi Mulla. One member of staff at the Moseley Hall Hospital event said, “I always look forward to these events, as I think it’s so nice to take a little break and treat yourself to a hot drink and some lovely music.” Staff were able to enjoy mince pies, cakes, and samosas whilst listening to musicians perform festive tunes; another member of staff at the Dental Hospital said of the harpist Lucy Nolan, “[The harp] really made my day!”
BCHC Charity purchased over 950 gifts for patients across the Trust, 600 of which were for adult inpatients spending the Christmas period under our care, thanks in part to a generous donation from Samson Security. The toiletry sets, bed socks, and handkerchief gift sets were beautifully wrapped by our ‘National Elf Service’ (aka our wonderful volunteers) for distribution to patients at Moseley Hall Hospital, West Heath Hospital, and more. Marie at West Heath Hospital, said, “The items were great, and it was such a surprise!”
The donation from Samson Security also allowed us to provide hampers for Team BCHC staff based at Moseley Hall Hospital, West Heath Hospital, and the intermediate care centres, as well as gift bags for the five regional Early Intervention Community Teams (EICT) for their most vulnerable patients. 70 gift bags were created, and each contained a winter wellbeing pack kindly donated by Cadent Gas, as well as a festive treat such as biscuits or chocolates, and a thermal mug.
The charity also provided gifts such as Advent calendars, selection boxes, toys, and books for various Children’s & Families services, for those families that may not be able to provide gifts due to financial hardship. One mum of two who received toys from the Perry Barr Health Visiting Team said, “I have wrapped them up and put with love from Father Christmas. It has made the tree look lovely and I’m so pleased they all have something to open. I didn’t think that was going to be the case this year. Thank you for your support!” We were able to provide more toys and gifts than usual this year, thanks to the wonderful donations from Siobhan at Mitie, and Daisy Communications. Vikki Bateman, Executive Assistant, said, “This year we wanted to bring our Giving Tree to life, and hearing about the great work BCHC Charity do, we thought it would be a fantastic charity to partner with over the festive period. Giving back is really important to us here at Daisy Communications and it has been wonderful to be able to spread a little joy to those who need it most.”
The Charity also continued to provide winter wellbeing support out in the community, thanks to the Direct Access to Wellbeing Services (DAWs) Team offering advice and resources to help people to stay well and warm at home this winter.
We’d like to offer our sincere thanks to Samson Security for their donation to our winter appeal, Sonal Gajbe and Missi Mulla for the beautiful handmade gifts, Relax Wellbeing and Justicia Health for providing hand and back massages to Team BCHC staff, Chris from Kaw-fee for his much appreciated hot drinks, local henna artist Naznin Choudhury for offering free hand art, Devam Sweets for the delicious samosas and the Tesco stores in Aston, Spring Hill and New Oscott for donating mince pies, and the Quintus Brass volunteer band, musician Bob Gessey, and harpist Lucy Nolan for providing a wonderfully festive soundtrack to our events.
We would also like to thank our volunteers from the ASDA stores in Small Heath, Perry Barr and Queslett, Tesco stores in Aston and New Oscott, MACE Group, Jumar, Birmingham City University, DWF Law, the University of Birmingham, and Turner and Townsend, who wrapped inpatient gifts, packed up staff hampers and EICT gift bags, assisted with delivery of the hampers, supported us at the winter wellbeing events, and created beautiful Christmas cards for the wards.
Finally, we would like to say a huge THANK YOU to you, for all your support to BCHC Charity and Team BCHC throughout 2024; it’s thanks to the generosity of our star supporters that we can continue to make a difference in Birmingham. We look forward to bringing you lots more good news stories for 2025!