Lord Lieutenant’s Cadet Colour Sgt Charlie Rice has donated Easter eggs and other gifts to the staff of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Peterborough Hospital, to thank them for their extraordinary life saving work which has included treating his aunt, Deborah.
Deborah was admitted to hospital on the 20th February. She was seriously ill, having to be placed on a ventilator and have a tracheotomy performed. She is now out of intensive care and doing well, undergoing physiotherapy and speech therapy as part of her recovery.
Charlie visited the hospital on Monday 5th of April to hand over around 40 Easter Eggs (paid for with his own money) to the staff of the ICU, as well as assorted other gifts including moisturiser, face scrubs, bath bombs and lip salve. Masks were worn and social distancing observed. He and his family are additionally fundraising to be able to present all the ICU staff with specialist covered ‘NHS Heroes’ mugs which they can use at work, and this effort has already raised an impressive £1715.
Charlie had been moved by the remarkable care his aunt has received, and also seen first-hand how hard NHS staff are working, as he himself is volunteering alongside some of them as a Vaccination Steward, booking people in and sending them to the right place. He has completed multiple unpaid eight hour shifts at Peterborough City Care Clinic and The Jenner Health Centre, Whittlesey.
He said: ‘I wanted to give something back to the staff because of how much they do. Their work is amazing, they work really long hours, and get few breaks. I really wanted to make them smile, and I did- they were really pleased.’
Text by PI Doug Stuart
