ALL they want for Christmas is to know someone cares.
As many as 400 teenagers and young people will spend Christmas Day in hospital fighting cancer.
Most families will gather their loved ones around them and celebrate the festivities at home.
But for some young people Christmas will be spent in a hospital bed.
A Huddersfield-based charity has a Wish to make a difference again this year.
The Laura Crane Youth Cancer Trust, a national charity with local roots, targets help at teenagers and young people aged 13-24.
The charity offers support to 34 UK hospitals which treat teenage cancer including specialist centres in Leeds and Sheffield.
The charity, founded in 1996 in memory of 17-year-old Laura Crane, aims to improve the quality of life of young cancer patients, both during and in the aftermath of their illnesses.
This year, as part of the Examiner’s Wish campaign, the Trust wants to give more than the gift of hope to young cancer patients.
This Christmas they want to give every young person on a cancer ward a special gift.
Trust manager Pam Thornes said it was vitally important that young people knew they weren’t alone at what should be the happiest time of year.
“This year there will be almost 400 young cancer patients facing a Christmas where they will receive harsh and invasive treatments for cancer,” she said.
“Their Christmas will be spent in a hospital bed far from their family, friends and home, a very different Christmas to what we all hope for.
“This year we want to give them a special gift, appropriate to their age group.
“But it will mean so much more than a parcel wrapped in Christmas paper. It will be a gift wrapped in hope and sealed with thousands of good wishes.”
Over the years the Trust has delivered some 3,000 presents at Christmas, lifting the spirits of those facing the toughest time of their lives.
This thank you letter came to the Trust from a hospital nurse one Christmas when a sudden heavy snowfall left many of us grumbling about the inconvenience of it all.
The nurse wrote: “To give you an idea of the difference you make, I want to tell you about just one of the young people whose Christmas you have changed.
“He came to us from a small hospital as he needed a stem cell transplant which they cannot provide.
“The team here did their best to be sensitive to his age and scheduled his transplant so he would be well enough to go home for the day on Christmas Day.
“However, bed shortages meant his transplant was delayed for two weeks and he didn’t start his treatment until December 20, meaning there was no chance he could go home on Christmas Day.
“This was disappointing to a young lad a long way from home on his own but even worse, the snow fall meant his family were cut off in a rural area where they live and couldn’t get to the hospital to see him or to bring his Christmas presents.
“He spent Christmas Day without his family and had it not been for you, he would have spent it without any presents to open.
“Your amazing generosity really made all the difference for this young man at a really hard time.”