We all love Secret Santa over the festive period, but what about those who cannot afford an extra ten pounds at Christmas? The selfless team of eight at Bedford Warfarin Services have sacrificed their usual annual Secret Santa and have donated the £10 they would usually spend on each other towards Christmas hampers, filled with items that patients would find useful at this time of year.
The idea came from Helen Willis, a Senior Nurse, who suggested that the team buy things like cake, biscuits, tea, mince pies, tins of soup, toiletries etc. Each member of the team made a list of patients that they thought would benefit the most and created five hampers in total; two toiletry hampers and three food hampers. Helen delivered one of the hampers to a patient on Tuesday morning who was thrilled.
Jenny Hughes, an administrator at Bedford Warfarin Clinic said, “At this time of year, going to patients houses and speaking with them, knowing how little some people have, it doesn’t make sense to give out for Secret Santa to those that have, rather than those that don’t. I can definitely see us making this an annual thing.”