A very special delivery was made by Northern this week to bring some festive cheer to children at Leeds Children’s Hospital.
Toys and a donation of £3,000 (used to help buy even more toys) were donated by staff to spread joy to young patients at the hospital, with supported donations from Maybank, ISS, Consortia, MCM Brown, Spencer’s and unions ASLEF and RMT.
Northern also managed to secure Father Christmas himself to deliver the presents with his elves in a specially-designed sleigh – built by Northern staff members Jamie Burt and Paul Mansell.
Leeds British Transport Police came to the rescue at the last minute to transport more presents as Santa ran out of space on his sleigh.
The event was organised by Patrick Cox, who works in Northern’s property team with help from Samantha Emms and Lyndsey Sherwood and Gill Gourley.
A signed Leeds Rhinos and St Helens rugby shirts were donated to the hospital, which was sponsored by JMD Rail, Seed architects and Vetrix, while retired ruby league player Danika Priim also visited the children.
Tony Baxter, regional director at Northern said: “Christmas is a great time of the year – and there really is no better time to give something back to the communities we serve and are part of.
“Leeds Children’s Hospital does fantastic work with extremely ill young people, and I’m delighted we have been able to support their efforts.”
Northern’s new timetable came into effect just before this extended period of disruption, so it is advising customers to use the new ‘Check My Timetable’ feature on its website to see the changes specific to their local station.
Northern is the second largest train operator in the UK, with nearly 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations across the North of England.
