Brave lucy delivers Disney gifts

Buy photos » Ward manager Lara Greenway and senior hospital play specialist Emma Mander receive the toys from Lucy and Hannah Clarke. Picture by Nick Hands 0112011NHR. Order this picture at www.buyphotos247.com.

A LITTLE girl who bravely battled pneumonia so she could go to the pantomime has brought some magic of her own to the ward she was treated on.

Thanks to the fund-raising efforts of her family, three-year-old Lucy Clarke managed to deliver nearly £300 worth of toys to the Kingfisher Ward at the Alexandra Hospital, where she spent ten days before Christmas after doctors diagnosed the condition in her lung.

The Alvechurch toddler was admitted to the Woodrow Drive hospital at the start of December and the team there kept her spirits up when she did not respond to her first two rounds of treatment by giving her toys from the 'special cupboard' which had been donated by the Disney store in Birmingham.

She was also encouraged to get better with the promise she could go to Birmingham Hippodrome's production of Cinderella.

Her grandmother Maureen Thorte said the family normally raised money for Acorn's Hospice by carol singing around the pubs and restaurants in the village, but this year they had raised money to buy toys to add to the special cupboard.

Staff at the Disney store even agreed to give Lucy a 20 per cent discount on all the toys they bought and the toddler dressed up as Cinderella, who she met during a backstage tour of the pantomime, to deliver the gifts on Wednesday (January 4).

Her mother Hannah said: "Thankfully she is now completely better. The staff were absolutely amazing and they are all like friends now so it was nice to come back and see them after they had been so kind.

"Having toys from the cupboard made a really big difference to Lucy when she had the treatment, it was such a boost for her. Hopefully with what we have donated, most children can have something out of the special cupboard.

"We would like to thank everybody at the hospital, the people of Alvechurch who donated, the Disney shop and the Birmingham Hippodrome."