Northern brings festive cheer and gifts to Leeds Children’s Hospital

Staff donated a range of fun-filled gifts to spread some joy to young patients during the festive season as well as £3000 in cash which was used to help buy even more toys. 

Donations also came from security services provider Maybank, contractor ISS, as well as Consortia, MCM Brown, Spencer's and unions ASLEF and RMT. 

The presents were delivered by Father Christmas himself and his elves in a sleigh built specially for the occasion by Northern staff members Jamie Burt and Paul Mansell.  

And 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 rugby 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.