Waterlooville woman leads QA Hospital toy drive in memory of nephew who died of a rare form of childhood cancer

Christina Hunt, of Waterlooville, has led a toy drive for patients at Queen Alexandra Hospital in memory of her nephew, Ollie Sweeney, who died in July 2021 at the age of four. A number of local businesses stepped up to help support the initiative with Christina becoming inundated with gifts.

So much so, Christina added a number of other hospitals to drop off to having only initially intended to deliver to QA. Christina said: “When I started this appeal my mission was to ensure every child spending Christmas in QA Hospital received a present.

“When I now look at that list and know how many children will be receiving a toy on Christmas morning in memory of Ollie, it makes me unbelievably proud. Ollie will always be my reason and I will always continue to do anything I can to keep his legacy alive.”

Ollie was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma in 2019, a rare form of childhood cancer. After undergoing a number of procedures including, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy and blood transfusions, Ollie went into remission twice but this form cancer is known to return.

The only chance the family had was to get onto clinical trials which were only available in Barcelona and New York. Ollie’s parents, Lucy and Gary, led fundraising to try to cover the £250,000 plus required to get on the trial.

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While they were successful in raising the money, Ollie relapsed while on the beach in Barcelona before the trial could begin. The decision was made to stop treatment and Ollie returned to the UK, passing away three weeks later surrounded by his family.

Since then, Ollie's parents have run a yearly pyjama collection at Christmas which they deliver to children oncology wards across the country. This year Christina wanted to organise something local to honour Ollie’s memory.

She said: “This year I thought let’s do something local and do presents to children in QA, the local hospital to me. High Five for Ollie was a Facebook page we used to raise money for the trial and it had lots of followers who have seen the toy drive and have donated gifts.

“Keydell Nurseries saw the post and donated hundreds and hundreds of toys. My daughters dance school (Crown Academy School of Dance), my husbands work (Verto People), Horndean Infant School, TUI Waterlooville, and Dimensions Childcare also provided lots of toys.”

There were so many presents that they had to be stored across Christina’s friends and families houses while Horndean Infant School also volunteered to store a number of them for the drive. Cowplain School then gave up its hall for Christina and other volunteers to wrap presents with the wrapping paper donated by Asda in Fratton.

The logistical issue of delivering the amount of presents they had was solved by removals company Brittania Reeves, who delivered the presents to QA hospital on Friday, December 6.

The response exceeded Christina’s expectations and she wanted to thank everyone who helped. She said: “Thank you to everyone that donated, it means the absolute world. They have followed Ollie’s story from day one and the support has been amazing for our family.

“We are doing it in memory of Ollie to keep his legacy alive. All I want is to try and get as many kids to smile at Christmas as I can.”

Due to the amount of presents received, Christina was able to deliver presents to other hospitals such as Southampton General, Petersfield UTC, and also to organisations including The Children’s Family Trust, Home Start and Women’s Refuge.