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The Wishing Tree at Palmerston North Hospital. Donated gifts are collected by Salvation Army and gifted to families in need. The Kmart Wishing Tree Appeal has become the longest and largest gift giving appeal for Christmas in New Zealand. The Salvation Army helps distribute the donated presents. “The staff here at MidCentral are very generous. They just pile up the parcels. Most of it is not from the public, but from the staff. Every time they open the doors, somebody brings something,” Pigott said. She was pleased the Fitzherbert Lions’ Club and Pub Charity gifted a new and bigger tree to the hospital this year as the old one was disintegrating. However, it has arrived just as Pigott intends to depart.
Tuesday, 22 December, 2020 - 12:25
MidCentral and Whanganui DHBs will be serving patients a delicious Christmas Day menu on December 25, beginning with a traditional Christmas meal at midday.
Compass Group New Zealand Operations Director Sean Conroy said the Christmas Day menu features a festive theme designed to provide anyone in hospital over this time with a sense of being at home. The festive season is a special time and we know it must be difficult for people staying in hospital to be away from their home, whÄnau and friends at this time of year, he said. That’s why our team has put a great deal of thought into creating a menu for patients that will taste and feel like what they might expect to get at home.
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Divine and Chester de Dios are staying in the Ronald McDonald House while their premature baby is in Wellington Hospital. Divine was admitted to Palmerston North Hospital, but it could not cater for babies born before 28 weeks. She was transferred to Wellington Hospital on October 31 and gave birth three weeks later. Amon was the couple’s first baby, after 10 years of trying, and was born weighing just over 500 grams. “We are actually taking him as a miracle baby, because the midwife said because of the shape of my uterus it’s hard for me to conceive,” Divine said.
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