We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of our community’s response to our Jammies in June Appeal, with gifts of more than 2,600 PJs and over $16,300 in donations from across our region, allowing us to buy pyjamas on our donors behalf.
Many of you posted or dropped in anonymous gifts, many of you rallied workmates, community group colleagues or school friends to help out…..HUGE THANKS to you all.
This winter there was an outbreak of the highly contagious and severe respiratory illness Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) in the community with many babies and young children admitted to hospital, and sadly many also received care in the Intensive Care Unit. Nationally this outbreak grew to more than 2,500 cases, dwarfing numbers from the past six years.
Gifts of warm winter pyjamas play an essential part in the care and treatment of children with all sorts of respiratory illnesses over winter. They are not only given to children who are admitted to hospital, many of whom are immunocompromised, but also disbursed by our hospital’s outpatient paediatric community nursing teams who treat hundreds of children and young people living in cold and damp homes. In many cases these children have never had a warm pair of pyjamas.
As quickly as the pyjamas arrived in they were distributed by our hospital’s doctors and nurses, and they too are incredibly grateful to the donors who help make their difficult job a little easier.
Many thanks again to all our wonderful donors.
~ a few of the donors we were lucky enough to snap in action!