Each Christmas, the Oxford Health Charity provides funds to wards and teams across the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust to help them celebrate Christmas with patients and staff who are in on Christmas Day.  Generally this covers the purchase of festive food and treats for patients, visitors, carers and staff - making Christmas at hospital just that little bit more enjoyable.  For inpatient wards, the funding also includes enough money for each patient to receive a small gift.

This year, one of our wards received an extra special surprise package ahead of Christmas, courtesy of the Yarndale Sock Line!

The Highfield Unit - a mental health inpatient unit for young people - was the lucky recipient of over 20 pairs of hand-knitted, colourful and beautifully soft socks. These socks were donated to the Yarndale Sock Line, part of the Yarndale festival held in Skipton, Yorkshire, each year, and have been sent from across the world to be part of the display.

The Sock Line was started in 2015 and has seen socks knitted and sent to them from all over since then.  The socks are displayed in Skipton in September each year and are then sent on to people needing a little extra love and cosy socks - https://www.winwickmum.co.uk/p/yarndale-sock-line.html.

Christine, who writes the blog Winwick Mum, and is responsible for our package of amazing socks, had heard about the Highfield Unit and wanted to make a donation of socks to the young people in time for Christmas, getting in touch with the OHC team in early December. 

The socks arrived shortly after and the Ward Matron, Sarah Firth and one of her team, Lyndsey Griffiths, came over to collect the socks on behalf of the young people just before Christmas week.  They were blown away by the array of socks and the personal messages that each knitter had added, and were excited to get them back to the young people on the ward so they could choose their favourites. 

Maybe socks are the best present after all!