Northampton hospital let patient's children stay overnight to spend last Christmas with their mum

Ward sister, Sarah Dainty, and her team on Spencer Ward brought Christmas forward to make sure her patient, who was receiving end-of-life care, could spend one last Christmas Day with her family.

The team used one of the rooms on the ward to create their winter wonderland complete with Christmas trees, fairy lights, and then helped the patient’s children to prepare and beautifully wrap presents ready for their Christmas Eve to begin.

The children stayed overnight to get into the festive spirit and spend precious time as a family.

When morning came, they had bacon sandwiches from the catering team, enjoyed a whole host of festivities and visits from loved ones.

Sarah described how this gesture represents the true pride of NGH, she said: “Our story is not unique as this happens on different scales across NGH by teams and individuals and we should all be very proud to be part of something this special and take a moment to reflect, share and feel proud

"In our job we face hard challenges every day but this will stay with me for the rest of my career.

"I didn’t do it for the recognition, but our hearts were touched by this family at such a sad time, and we all wanted them to have happy memories despite the sad circumstances they were facing.”