Chanel turns Santa’s Little Helper as she delivers presents to poorly kids
Chanel Murrish turned Santa’s little helper as she handed out gifts to children just like her.
The three-year-old and her family have made it a tradition to visit the heart ward at the Freeman Hospital, in Newcastle, and hand out presents to those spending their Christmas in its care.
The act has been carried out at similar units around the country after mum Fay set up the Heart Family Group, which has brought together families with children who have heart defects across the country, uniting them through their shared experiences and giving them the chance to form friendships, take breaks together and pulling together fundraising efforts. Fay said: “We’ve delivered presents on Christmas Eve every year since Chanel was born and set up the support group coming up to four years ago when Chanel first ever got home from hospital because I felt a lack of support around at the time.
“It’s formed from eight cardiac units and so far we’ve got five of the eight where presents are handed out.
“Now we’ve got 3,000 people in it, but 12,000 people following our Facebook page and we’ve got a big membership from the different units set up.
“We give out the presents because we just think it’s hard enough to be in hospital to start off with and I think it must be so much harder at Christmas and especially because a lot of these families also have other children.
“Some are critically poorly and some are far away from home and from their relations, I can just imagine how difficult it is for them.”
Chanel’s story can be followed through her page, https://www.facebook.com/