Tag Archives: St George’s

Santa at St George’s 2017

December 23, 2017 by Peter · Leave a comment

I can’t believe that this is the eighth year in a row that we have gone to St George’s to hand out Christmas presents. As usual it was a fantastic day and I am always impressed with how high the spirits are amongst the parents and staff. Thank you very much to the wonderful play specialists for helping Santa with his bags and to Hugh Miller from Boy Meets Girl Photography for the fantastic photos. Amy and Darren did a great job of ordering and wrapping the presents and Henry and Christian were on hand to help Santa.

Parents can download print quality versions of the photos here

Merry Christmas!


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Father Christmas visits St George’s

December 22, 2016 by Peter · Leave a comment

 

Santa at St Georges

www.christianblandford.com

 

It has become a tradition that has now been going since 2010. The Bowlers and the Hancox’s, trustees of the Christian Blandford Fund, order and wrap the presents and we visit the hospital to hand them out. This year Santa had his usual elf  Chichi (Christian) and we were also joined by the reindeer Prancer (Jessica) who had a fabulous time ordering Father Christmas around. We also had a full entourage of help including Henry Blandford,  Darren and James Bowler, Neil Berrecloth, the wonderful play specialists, and Trevor Jacobs who offered his photography services at very late notice.

It is always an emotional day. We vividly remember being at the hospital this time of year, hoping that we would be able to get home for as normal a Christmas as we could manage. The hospital wards are, as always, full of love and hope tinged with a fair share of pain and sadness.

We like to think that we managed to raise a few smiles today and hopefully brightened up the day for some children and their families during a difficult time.

The photos are on our Facebook page here and can be downloaded in print quality here.

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Santa and his Elves Visit St George’s

December 21, 2015 by Peter · 1 Comment

We had a wonderful day handing out presents to the Children at St George’s Hospital in Tooting

www.christianblandford.com

www.christianblandford.com

 

Thank you very much to the play specialists for all their help. Thank you to the trustee families, Darren and James Bowler , Amy and Anna Hancox and Henry and Christian Blandford for being amazing Santa helpers!

The photos were all taken by the very talented Hugh Miller from Boy meets Girl Photography who gave up his time and skills for nothing but a thank you.

The photos are available for the parents to look at and share on Facebook here or they can be downloaded in print quality from here.

Thank you also to all our wonderful supporters and donators who have raised money and donated money so this can be possible.

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Father Christmas at St George’s

December 29, 2014 by Peter · Leave a comment

We had a great day handing out presents at St George’s helped by the wonderful play specialists. The photos are on facebook here and also here where parents can download hi-res versions using the username guest and the password Christmas. Thank you very much for the very talented photographer Hugh Miller who gave up his time and skills in order to help us out.

Santa 2014I received a nice e-mail after one of our Santa visits which i thought it would be good to share, I have changed the names to maintain anonymity.

I just wanted to say “thank-you” on behalf of my son Jack, who received a lovely teddy. It really cheered him up, as did the visit from father xmas and his little helper: his eyes lit up when he saw them (I think he was thinking “oh no, the door’s opening, someone in a uniform is coming to do something nasty to me”) and was lovely for his dad and mum to see. As you can appreciate, being in an isolation room at xmas is pretty grim for a kid. Jack has been poorly all his life and is a “regular” at St George’s, despite living 60 miles away in West Sussex. The distance makes it particularly difficult as his brother, Henry, who he is very close to, has to stay at his Grandma’s during his many stays at St George’s, so we are all split up as a family. Luckily, we were put on “home leave” for xmas but must return next Friday.

I think your charity is brilliant. As soon as I read the poster in the posh new parents room I could tell that the person who wrote it had a real insight into life for kids and their families in this situation that only personal experience (unfortunately) can bring.

Merry xmas to you all and keep up the good work!

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Christmas gifts for the children at St George’s

December 27, 2013 by Peter · Leave a comment

We have had a great day handing out presents to the Children who are unfortunate enough to be at St George’s over Christmas. Christian was a fab Elf and we had lots of help from the wonderful staff at the hospital. Henry stepped in as official photographer and took some photos which are here. I have included a hi-res copy which parents can use for personal use as they wish, just press the download button on the photo you want.

 

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Merry Christmas!

December 28, 2012 by Peter · Leave a comment

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

It is becoming an annual event, The Bowler and Hancox Families wrap up the presents and Peter, Henry and Christian pop over to St George’s as Santa and his two helpers. Today was very special with some really lovely children who seemed very happy with the visit. We hope they all get back to the comfort of their homes soon.

The photos are all here, we have made it so the photos are all downloadable in hi-res for the parents of the children that Santa saw.

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Christmas visit to St George’s

December 6, 2011 by Peter · Leave a comment

Just before Christmas, Christian, Peter and Henry went to St George’s again to be Santa and elves and hand out presents to children unfortunate enough to be in hospital during the festive period.

The Bowler family and the Hancox family did a great job of wrapping all the present and delivering them so they were ready for Santa to hand them out. This year we bought more than ever so plenty were left over for arrivals on or just after Christmas. Neil Berrecloth popped in to help and the play specialists, very efficient in sorting out the right presents for each child.

There are more photos on Facebook

The next day, I got this lovely e-mail

I just wanted to say “thank-you” on behalf of my son Alex, who received a lovely teddy. It really cheered him up, as did the visit from father Xmas and his little helper: his eyes lit up when he saw them (I think he was thinking “oh no, the door’s opening, someone in a uniform is coming to do something nasty to me”) and was lovely for his dad and mum to see. As you can appreciate, being in an isolation room at Xmas is pretty grim for a kid. Alex has been poorly all his life and is a “regular” at St George’s, despite living 60 miles away in West Sussex. The distance makes it particularly difficult as his brother William, who he is very close to, has to stay at his Grandma’s during his many stays at St George’s, so we are all split up as a family. Luckily, we were put on “home leave” for Xmas but must return next Friday.

I think your charity is brilliant. As soon as I read the poster in the posh new parents room I could tell that the person who wrote it had a real insight into life for kids and their families in this situation that only personal experience (unfortunately) can bring.

Merry Xmas to you all and keep up the good work!

Santa and the elves

 

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Father Christmas Visit to St George’s

December 30, 2010 by Peter · Leave a comment

Peter put on a Father Christmas outfit and went to St George’s to hand out presents with his two little helpers Henry and Christian.

Santa and his little helpers
There are more photos here. Some parents wanted copies of the photos, they can be ordered directly from photobox. If you have not used them before send me an e-mail at peter@theblandfords.com and I’ll send you an offer code for 50 free prints. A big thank you to Hugh Miller, the very talented photographer who took the photos for us and donated his time and expertise.

It was a lot of fun, made easy by the very organised play specialists at St George’s. Thank you also to Darren, Corrine, Emily and Amy for collecting wrapping and delivering the presents to the Hospital, they truly did all the hard work!

The presents were all paid for from The Christian Blandford Fund and we are very grateful to the enormous support that we receive from the friends that support us.

It was great to see Maz, one of the very skillful nurses at St George’s using the portable ultra sound machine that we supplied. At over £20,000 it is not in the NHS budget but makes inserting needles into children’s veins a much less traumatic and painful experience. Something we felt strongly was worth our investment!

So we can continue this kind of work, please consider us if you are raising money for a charity event or are about to make a festive charity donation. Thank and Merry christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!

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Visit To St George’s

November 30, 2010 by Peter · Leave a comment

Darren Bowler and Amy Hancox are trustees of the Christian Blandford fund and joined me on a visit to St George’s to discuss future projects and look at some of the recent purchases and projects we have been involved with. Here are some of the pictures.

Darren, Amy and Rachel

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