Charity ensures Dewsbury children in hospital get Christmas gifts

For the past eight years, Yorkshire Children’s Trust has provided gifts to hospitals across the county to ensure no child wakes up in hospital on Christmas morning without a present.

This year, the charity has provided presents to Dewsbury Hospital as well as Calderdale Royal Hospital, Bradford Royal Infirmary, Airedale Hospital, Pinderfields, and Leeds General Infirmary.

The charity is also celebrating a new patron Santa Blake, who has raised thousands of pounds for their work and provides a grotto experience at Calderdale Royal Hospital.

Because of the pandemic, Santa Blake could not be at the hospital in person this year but he has worked with Yorkshire Children’s Trust and the play workers at Calderdale to make live video calls from his magical workshop and provide a gift for the children to open.

Santa Blake, whose real name is Blake Meyer, is a free-to-hire, charity Santa.

Originally from the United States, Blake found himself stationed in the UK as a member of the US Air Force in 1997 and eventually retired in 2012 after 20 years of active duty service.

Blake and his family then made their way to Yorkshire, which is now where they consider home. In the run-up to Christmas 2016, Blake was invited out with friends for a festive jumper pub crawl around York, but instead of a jumper, Blake showed up in a fancy-dress Santa costume.

Blake said: “After a very surreal evening shaking hands, taking photos, and speaking to hundreds of children, and adults on the streets of York, Santa Blake was born.”

Blake’s friends assured him he had the right look and personality to be a very realistic Father Christmas and, after another similar experience in Harrogate, Blake decided to take it to the next step and started to plan for Christmas 2017.

For 2017, Blake invested in a custom-made suit, created a social media account, and put himself out for hire. He decided early on not to charge for appearances as he knew all too well how expensive Christmas was already having raised a family.

Blake soon started researching charities to support. Insisting it be small, local and for the benefit of children and their families. It didn’t take long for Santa Blake to decide on Yorkshire Children’s Trust.

Blake said: “As a small and local charity who receive no lottery, NHS or central government funding, the choice was easy -Yorkshire Children’s Trust fit the bill perfectly.

"After a call to the charity founder, Simon Widdop, Santa Blake was ready to go!”

Santa Blake has since seen thousands of children and helped to raise £13,260 for the charity.

“This is not a solo effort by any means," he said. "There has been a lot of community support for Santa Blake and a lot of individual helpers who have sacrificed their own time to help Santa raise these essential funds for a truly local charity.

"The goal is simple - keep the magic of Christmas alive and help to raise funds for local children and families in need. The gift of giving is the best gift of all.”

For his fantastic fundraising efforts, Santa Blake has this Christmas been given the honorary title of patron of Yorkshire Children’s Trust.

Charity Founder Simon said: “Santa Blake has been wonderful to work with over the last few years and he has a real warm heart and dedication to helping others. He has raised a substantial amount of money, every penny of which is used to support local children and their families through our emotional and financial support themes.”

“It is our pleasure to offer Blake the honorary role of patron of Yorkshire Children’s Trust as he is a real ambassador for the charity and has the magic to help make Christmas special for hundreds of children every single year."

Blake Meyer and the charity team at Yorkshire Children’s Trust plan to continue their annual grotto experience at Calderdale Royal Hospital, with plans to extend to other hospitals in the region when the pandemic has subsided.

More on the support options available to local families from the charity can be found on their website - www.yctrust.uk .