The charity team has been out and about across all our hospitals, spreading Christmas cheer, thanks as always, to your kind support.

The wards are decorated and beautiful real Christmas trees grace the entrances to each of our NHS Trust’s hospitals.

It’s always fantastic to see the immediate impact the trees have on visitors as we decorate them, with the help of the wonderful hospital volunteers and estates teams.

It’s a sign that Christmas is here and the patients, staff and visitors in our hospitals haven’t been forgotten.

A series of lovely events follows - with our Christmas Grotto in the Children’s Hospital and Horton Children’s Ward is a new highlight, where our charity bear and his helper elves hand out gifts to young patients in hospital over the Christmas period.

Creating happy moments like this for children in hospital is so important, meaning families don’t miss out on the magic of Christmas.

RAF Benson brings in Santa with a sackful of toys, and we have visits from Banbury’s Mayor to the Horton Children’s Ward, and Oxford United and Play2Give to the Oxford Children’s Hospital.

There are also carols, concerts and choirs in our hospitals – and these always bring a tear to the eye.

Throughout it all, the charity team is integral to these special moments, fuelled by your kind support.

A particular highlight is the distribution of 1,300 Christmas gifts, which aim to reach every corner of our hospitals so that no patient, young or old, feels forgotten this Christmas.

This mammoth task is led by the charity team, who design the beautiful gift packs, stuffed with treats, including cosy Christmas socks, lip balms and hand creams, tasty biscuits and treats and Christmas activities to raise a smile.

Another highlight of Christmas has been seeing the positive reaction to our special appeal  which asks our kind community to support their local hospitals  - both at Christmas and throughout the year.

Because, of course the Oxford Hospitals Charity team is at work month in month out, funding some of the most sophisticated medical equipment in our hospitals.

Thanks to your kind support we have recently:

• Transformed the care for patients needing reconstructive work due to mouth and head and neck cancer, as well as craniofacial conditions.
• Helped hundreds of brain tumour patients with a UK-first technique to guide more targeted radiotherapy treatment with ‘pinpoint’ accuracy.
• Funded VR headsets to help children in hospital learn in a fun and engaging way
• Brought live music to older patients and those with dementia, through our programme of Music on Wards across the Trust.
• Transformed the outdoor play area for children at the Horton Children’s Ward
• Funded state-of-the-art equipment to speed up the detection of glaucoma, in a non-invasive way
• Provided support to patients having chemotherapy with our Trolley of Treats
• Funded ‘game-changing’ equipment for children needing spinal and brain surgery
• Enabled new accessibility guides to be created to help patients and visitors with disabilities and sight problems navigate their way around our hospitals.

Thanks to you, 2025 has been another year where your generous donations, fundraising and gifts in Wills have helped us transform parts of our hospitals with innovative new equipment,  provided kindness and extra care to our more vulnerable patients, empowered staff with specialist training and fueled important research.

The whole charity team, and staff across all our hospitals extend heartfelt thanks and good wishes to all our supporters.

Your kind support is always welcome and makes such a difference in our hospitals.