Three of the city’s largest property companies have donated £8,000 worth of Christmas gifts to the Derby Royal Hospital’s Children’s ward, after the patients released a wish list.
ALB Commercial Investments who own the former Ilkeston Co-op building has been working closely with DL Rhodes & Son and Cassco Investments, following a variety of successful property ventures in Derby, to provide presents for a selection of six wards that care for children of all ages, including the Children’s Emergency Department and Teen Ward.
A van packed full of presents big and small was donated by the companies, including laptops, PlayStations, snooker tables and puzzles.
The Christmas gifts were hand-delivered on December 20 by the managing director of ALB Commercial Investments, Arran Bailey, Nigel Rhodes and Paul Leivers from DL Rhodes, Rob Cassidy from New Century Windows and ALB staff members.
Arran said: “We are delighted to be involved with this great cause. We hope to bring some festive cheer to the ward.
“We have had a variety of successful building projects within the city, such as the St Peters House development. With these Derby-based projects going so well, we decided to look into several different charities and youth clubs that we could support in the area as a way of giving something back to the community.
“We hope that the donations will bring children and families staying at Derby Hospital a lot of joy this Christmas and we are looking forward to helping with future charity projects in the city.”
The donations have been made following the completion of the show flat at Derby-based St Peters House this month.
The multi-million pound project to transform the eight-story office block into 156 flats began January this year, with DL Rhodes & Son being responsible for the conversion of the building into one-bedroom and two-bedroom flats.
Nigel Rhodes, managing director of DL Rhodes & Son, said: “We have worked with ALB Investments on various building projects and have a solid relationship with the company, so the idea of working on a joint charity project really appealed to us, we have been working with a number of charities throughout the year but really looking forward to donating these presents to the hospital.
Photo: ALB and DL Rhodes staff on the left, some of the children who received the presents are in the middle – (from left) Mara Dinnis with mum Laura Muir, Morgan Gilbert and Zara Mujanovic – Thornhill – with the ward nurses on the right.
