Colleagues from the Currys store in North Shields, Newcastle have been hard at work bringing some cheer to the Children’s Heart Unit at North Tyneside hospital. Located just a fifteen-minute drive up the Coast Road from our store, The Children’s Heart Unit at the Freeman Hospital provides expert care for children suffering from conditions involving the heart, lungs, and airways.

After an ex-Currys colleague reached out to the store to share how they felt the children’s ward could benefit from some spruced-up entertainment, General Manager Paul Osborne knew Currys was an obvious fit to help make this happen.

Working as part of a close-nit, family-orientated team in North Shield’s store, as well as this being a cause particularly close to Paul’s heart after his son received care from the Children’s ward when he was growing up, it was a no brainer for them to jump at the opportunity to give back to their community and support families going through hard times.

The team set about pulling together tech that would help to give the kids on the ward a little bit of a distraction, striving to create some feeling of normality for them. From liaising with our suppliers, to hosting a raffle to help raise the money to buy tech directly, the North Shields team were able to pull together a selection of products that would give the children a next-gen gaming experience on some quality TVs.

Amongst the donations were two top of the range televisions, one a former display Samsung 55 8000, the other a 50-inch Phillips Ambilight kindly donated by Phillips, also donated a 50-inch Phillips TV. To go with these was a brand-new Xbox Series S, which colleagues had raised money to purchase directly via an in-store raffle! The items were then delivered by David Lee Mulholland, a Sales Manager based at the North Shields store.

Staff at the Children’s Heart Unit unboxing the new tech

Paul shared what the donations meant to him and his colleagues “this is something that has been incredibly close to my heart for many years because my eldest son had regular check-ups at the Children’s Heart Unit at Freeman’s Hospital. I’ve seen first-hand how donations like this help to provide some normality for the children, being able to play some great games just as kids at home would, so we jumped at the opportunity to support the amazing staff and children.”