Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust’s charity ‘dreamdrops’ has received an amazing donation of over £5,000 for their children’s unit at Hinchingbrooke Hospital.

The money raised by Davey Grover Limited has been put towards purchasing a "Magic Carpet" for the Children’s Outpatients department.

Anne-Marie Hamilton, Chairman of the ‘dreamdrops’ fundraising committee said: "We are overwhelmed by the generous donation we received for the Children’s ward.

"The money raised has enabled us to purchase a "Magic Carpet" for the Children’s Outpatients department. We had expected it to take us a long time to raise enough money to buy such a significant piece of equipment, and it is wonderful to have been able to put this donation together with one previously received from the Huntingdon District Council, who also chose dreamdrops as one of their nominated charities.

"I cannot thank Davey Grover Limited and Cllr Peter Bucknell, Huntingdon District Council enough as this will be of benefit for children of all ages and abilities."

The magic carpet is a sensory tool that projects images onto the floor. This enables patients of all ages and abilities to participate in play. The advantage of the carpet is that it is also portable so can be moved around all areas of the children’s unit to help individual and groups of patients.

Sandie White, Ward Manager said: "We specifically use the carpet in our outpatients department to create an inclusive environment for everyone. It is an amazing distraction tool for children whilst they undergo investigations in clinic such as blood and skin prick testing. We are extremely grateful to dreamdrops and those that have fundraised for the Magic Carpet as we can already see what a huge difference it is making to the children."

Davey Grover Limited based in St Neots raised the money at their Annual Charity Golf Day.

Jeff Windsor, Managing Director said: "For the last seven years, Davey Grover has put on a charity golf day with the objective of raising as much money as possible for small local charities. In that time, with the regular support from many of our clients, we have managed to raise just over £41,000 to date and in 2017, the golf day managed to raise just under £5,800 which all went to help dreamdrops achieve their goal of purchasing the "Magic Carpet" for the Children’s Outpatient Department.

"As soon as we found out about the work that dreamdops do, it made the decision of picking them as our charity for the year a very easy one and we are so pleased that the monies have been put to such good use. We would also like to place on record our sincere thanks to all of our clients and sponsors that support our day each year, as without their support, this would not be possible."

Money raised through ‘dreamdrops’ is used to provide additional items for the Special Care Baby Unit and Children’s Ward, as well as children who are cared for at home. For further information on how you can help raise funds for the charity please visit www.dreamdropschildrenscharity.org or
email dreamdrops.dreamdrops@nhs.net.  


(Photo: Theresa Kopplin (Play Leader), Sarah Hughes (Matron for Acute Children’s Services), Sandie White (Ward Manager), Cllr Peter Bucknell, Anne-Marie Hamilton (Chairman of dreamdrops) and Natalie Matthews (Play Leader)