#TeamUHDB colleagues join RDH porter Avtar in supporting those less fortunate this Christmas
A Royal Derby Hospital porter has thanked his fellow UHDB colleagues for doing their bit to support the homeless this Christmas.
Avtar Samrai has been gathering contributions of food and other essential items from our staff for the last few weeks and today delivered three cages full of donations to the Padley Centre charity in Derby.
In total, Avtar has collected more than 45 boxes of donations from 13 different departments across the Trust and has explained that he just wanted to do something small to help people less fortunate during what will be a very difficult festive period for us all.
He said: “For the last three weeks, I’ve been contacting all of my friends across our hospitals to try and get food donations for the homeless and less fortunate. Because of Covid-19, a lot of people have lost their jobs and they’ve lost accommodation and I wanted to do something to help the less fortunate.
“I think, because of Covid, many people have had a very hard year and we’re all suffering, so I just wanted to do my bit to try and help as many people as possible over the festive period, so that we can all enjoy Christmas.”
Avtar has made fundraising a priority throughout 2020 – raising more than £7,500 for Derby and Burton Hospitals Charity by completing regular charity walks and runs around our hospitals.
Numerous colleagues showcased their support for his latest fundraising drive, including Teresa Hurst, Neonatal Unit at Queen’s Hospital Burton, whose lovely gesture epitomised the generosity of our staff.
Avtar added: “I want to say a great big thank you to everybody who has donated so much food but I especially want to thank my colleague Teresa. It was her birthday on Friday and she asked all of her friends and colleagues to just give her money, so that she could spend it on donations for the Padley Centre, rather than on herself, which is a great gesture. I want to thank her from the bottom of my heart.”