A woman is making sure everyone gets a visit from Santa this year, donating gifts to children and teenagers spending Christmas in the hospital.
Yvette Caster, a volunteer with Christmas for CAMHS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services), suffers from bipolar disorder and spent much of her teenage years in the CAMHS unit in Wokingham.
With 132 wards and over 1,300 kids spending this festive season on the ward, she wanted to make sure Santa’s elves forgot no one this year, ensuring everyone got a gift.
Putting together 1,340 gifts this year, Yvette and 70 other volunteers, are set to make the day memorable with games, puzzles, and Lego.
“Hospitals can be bleak places, especially at Christmas and, while other children’s wards often receive festive donations, CAMHS units are forgotten,” she 42-year-old, from Berkshire, told http://NeedToKnow.co.uk.
“The charity is close to my heart as I have bipolar disorder and spent time in a CAMHS unit during my teens.
“It was the most challenging time of my life.
“I was given a place at the local mental health unit for children and young people (CAMHS unit).
“The friends I made there and the support I received from the doctors and nurses probably saved my life.
“For me, this is a way of showing children and young people that they’re not forgotten at Christmas.
“They can go through some really tough times and, sadly, these don’t stop at Christmas.
“Hopefully by sending gifts and decorations, we can brighten their lives just a little.”
Seeing how CAMHS units were often left forgotten over the festive period, Dr Ro Bevan founded in charity in 2016, hoping to add a little joy to the Christmas period.
Sending advent calendars and decorations, as well as gifts, Christmas for CAMHS is hoping to make the difficult season one to remember, even sending cards to the hospital staff and posting festive jokes around the ward.
Yvette and the charity are hoping to raise £9,000 this year to improve the ward and have set up a JustGiving page.
