Northampton father to host 24-hour Twitch stream to raise money for hospital ward where his son was cared for

A Northampton father will host a 24-hour Twitch stream to raise money for the hospital where his son was looked after.

Matt Virgin from Spinney Hill wants to raise funds for the Paddington and Disney wards and Northampton General Hospital after his son, Freddie, spent two days there with severe jaundice two days after he was born back in December 2019.

The youngster is healthy now, but new parents Matt and his wife Beth felt helpless when their newborn needed medical care.

During the family’s time in hospital, Matt says they were ‘looked after really well’ and Freddie even received a sack of presents from Santa as he was there until Christmas Day morning.

Matt said: “We didn’t expect Freddie to get anything as he’d only been on the ward for a couple of days, but he got a huge sack full of presents.

“We were both really touched by this so we now want to help other people who may be in there during Christmas.

“We want them to be as well looked after as we were as it made us feel really good.”

Since their experience, Matt and Beth have said they want to do whatever they can to help out the Northamptonshire Health Charity as much as they can and as often as they can.

Last year, Beth raised money through her Avon representative work and this year Matt is planning a 24-hour stream on Twitch, which is a streaming platform mainly used to watch others play video games.

Matt, or AngryMattGaming, is ‘semi-professional’ on Twitch as he is affiliated, which means he makes money from the streaming service. Any money made or donated during the 24-hour stream will go to the hospital charity.

The 29-year-old added: “Hopefully I’ll have a few different things lined up to keep the stream going.

“I’ve been in touch with Northamptonshire Cricket to see if I can get one of the pro cricketers to come on. Hopefully we’ll play a cricketing video game together and then I’ll play other popular games too.

“I’m really excited and I can’t wait to get going. I’ve set a target of £750, but if we could get to four figures, that would be fantastic.”

The stream will start at 9am on October 30. Matt’s Twitch channel can be found here and donations can be made via his JustGiving page here.