THE children’s outpatient department at Airedale General Hospital has had a Christmas toy bonus – thanks to the Friends of Airedale (FoA) playing Santa.

The clinic, which likes to keep its young waiting visitors entertained with a good range of toys, recently experienced a worrying loss of playthings. So, when the Friends heard how depleted toy stocks had become, they decided it was time to play Father Christmas.

“We were horrified to hear that toys were simply disappearing from the department,” said FoA chairman Alison Dixon, who lives in Ilkley. “We first learned about it when senior healthcare worker Sahdya Mushtaq wrote to us asking if we could help with their wish list after quite a lot of the toys had apparently gone missing. It was a very modest list of educational toys, sensory aids and a few bits for its much-praised garden area. When the trustees heard about their plight, they not only agreed to fund the request but more than doubled the amount that had been asked for.”

The result was that Alison was able to tell a delighted Sahdya that a bonus £500 (£400 for toys and £100 for garden bits) could be theirs in time for Christmas.

“We were over the moon,” said Sahdya. She and others from the team at children’s outpatients, took delivery of part of their wish list from Santa Alison herself.

Alison said: “It’s always gratifying to be able to award funds to help different departments fund equipment that enhances the patient/visitor experience at Airedale and which is not available to them via the NHS. This was a particularly deserving cause which we were delighted to help with.”

Friends of Airedale is a group of volunteers dedicated to supporting Airedale General Hospital by undertaking a number of roles within the hospital and in the community. It also raises money to buy equipment to benefit patients and – in the past – has donated between £150,000 to £200,000 worth of equipment and services to the Airedale NHS Foundation Trust each year.