Treatment & toys TIFF'S HOSPITAL SANTA WORKSHOP

Having spent too many Christmases at bedside, the caring mum knows exactly what fills an ill child with joy

- Fleur Guthrie

After a “massive” year that saw pregnancy and birth complications with her youngest child Kenzie, as well as her teen daughter Eva undergoing major back surgery, Tiff McLeod would be forgiven for wanting to lie low and just focus on her own family this Christmas season.

But during a recent stint in Auckland’s Starship Children’s Hospital, as vulnerable Eva recovered from having her spine reconstructed and a subsequently collapsed lung, Tiff was still out there trying to help others.

Using her social media platforms, the tenacious mum-of-four has been rallying followers to help donate toys for the hospital’s play specialists who work with supporting sick kids and their siblings needing distraction and joy during their stay.

“The play specialists are our angels,” she tells the Weekly. “And now with this little project, we’re hoping to be their angels back. We want them to feel they are valued and recognized.

“With high demand on funding new Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) beds, hospital budgets can only stretch so far. And during Covid restrictions, donated toys are needed even more because extended family members aren’t allowed to visit and bring toys, and there isn’t a hospital grandma coming to read a book to kids.

“So the only people who are able to help distract and comfort the kids, and let mum go get a coffee, are the play specialists. So they reply even more on the tools that they need, which are toys.”