Ambulance service staff donate Christmas gifts to North East children’s charity

Ambulance service receptionist and former children’s nurse, Maureen Morien, organises the Trust’s annual collection on behalf of the organisation. This year she and colleagues from NEAS donated thousands of pounds worth of gifts to Children North East.

Children North East has a service based in The Cowgate Centre which provides services to babies, children, young people, and their families. The gifts support families who are financially struggling during the festive period, as well as those who have fled abuse or are asylum seekers.

Mandy Brown, operations lead for communities for Children North East, works with the ambulance service annually on their donations. She said: “Each year the staff at the North East Ambulance Service, driven by Maureen, astound me with their generosity with this long-standing arrangement. We are able to support families across all our delivery services and this makes a big difference to the babies, children, young people and their family both at Christmas time and throughout the year.”

The North East Ambulance Service provides emergency and scheduled care to the patients of the North East, covering 3,200 miles across the region and a population of over 2.7 million people.

Chief executive for the ambulance service, Helen Ray, said: “Our colleagues come to work to make a difference day in, day out. When it comes to Christmas, they don’t stop. The generosity of our people at this time of year has no bounds and I thank Maureen for organising this every year, she really is an asset to our service.”

On her colleagues generosity during the festive period, Maureen added: “I’m glad to have the opportunity to deliver the presents personally on behalf of the service. Being able to see the impact this has on the children and their faces when they see their gifts just lifts my heart. It’s good to be kind and to help those who are less fortunate than ourselves, and I’m proud to work with incredible people who so generously donate to important causes across our region.”

Find out more about Children North East: https://children-ne.org.uk